Urban trauma describes a condition where conflict or catastrophe has disrupted and damaged not only the physical environment and infrastructure of a city, but also the social and cultural networks. Cities experiencing trauma dominate the daily news. Images of blasted buildings, or events such as Hurricane Katrina exemplify the sense of 'immediate impact'. But how is this trauma to be understood in its aftermath, and in urban terms? What is the response of the discipline to the post-traumatic condition? On the one hand, one can try to restore and recover everything that has passed, or otherwise see the post-traumatic city as a resilient space poised on the cusp of new potentialities. While repair and reconstruction are automatic reflexes, the knowledge and practices of the disciplines need to be imbued with a deeper understanding of the effect of trauma on cities and their contingent realities. This issue will pursue this latter approach, using examples of post-traumatic urban conditions to rethink the agency of architecture and urbanism in the contemporary world. Post-traumatic urbanism demands of architects the mobilisation of skills, criticality and creativity in contexts in which they are not familiar. The post-traumatic is no longer the exception; it is the global condition.

"Contributors include:
"Andrew Benjamin
Ole Bouman
Tony Chakar
Mark Fisher
Christopher Hight
Brian Massumi
Todd Reisz
Eyal Weizman
Slavojiek

"Counterpoint critics:
"Jayne Merkel
Craig Whitaker

"Encompasses:
"Urban conflict
Reconstruction
Infrastructure
Development
Climate change
Public relations
Population growth
Film

A fascinating work of detective history, The Black Death traces the causes and far-reaching consequences of this infamous outbreak of plague that spread across the continent of Europe from 1347 to 1351. Drawing on sources as diverse as monastic manuscripts and dendrochronological studies (which measure growth rings in trees), historian Robert S. Gottfried demonstrates how a bacillus transmitted by rat fleas brought on an ecological reign of terror -- killing one European in three, wiping out entire villages and towns, and rocking the foundation of medieval society and civilization.

This book is for a broad audience of practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and anyone interested in scenarios, simulations, and disaster planning. Readers are led through several different planning scenarios that have been developed over several years under the auspices of the US Department of Energy, the US Air Force, and continued work at GlobalInt LLC. These scenarios present different security challenges and their potential cascading impacts on global systems - from the melting of glaciers in the Andes, to hurricanes in New York and Hawaii, and on to hybrid disasters, cyberoperations and geoengineering. The book provides a concise and up-to-date overview of the 'lessons learned', with a focus on innovative solutions to the world's pressing energy and environmental security challenges.

Marz bis Mai 2020: Es sind drei Monate, die die Welt verandern, in denen in Italien Tausende von Menschen sterben und hierzulande das Toilettenpapier aus den Supermarktregalen verschwindet. Die Corona-Tagebucher berichten unaufgeregt aus der Zeit des Lockdowns in einer suddeutschen Stadt. Sie bieten einen standigen Faktencheck und den Blick uber die eigenen Landesgrenzen, vor allem nach Italien, wo das neue Virus sich europaweit zuerst ausbreitet. Sachlich fundiert, sind die Tagebucher gleichzeitig ein sehr persoenliches Zeitdokument. Marco Lalli ist Schriftsteller und promovierter Sozialwissenschaftler. Als Statistiker verfugt er uber eine umfassende epidemiologische Ausbildung, mit der er die Hintergrunde der Corona-Pandemie verstandlich erklart. Er ist zudem bekannt durch seine Ausfuhrungen zum Themenkomplex des autonomen Fahrens.

Yang Jisheng's Tombstone is the book that broke the silence on of one of history's most terrible crimes More people died in Mao's Great Famine than in the entire First World War, yet this story has remained largely untold, until now. Still banned in China, Tombstone draws on the author's privileged access to official and unofficial sources to uncover the full human cost of the tragedy, and create an unprecedented work of historical reckoning. 'A book of great importance' Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans 'The first proper history of China's great famine ... So thorough is his documentation that some are already calling Yang "China's Solzhenitsyn"' Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A History

C. Wright Mills is best remembered for his highly acclaimed work The Sociological Imagination, in which he set forth his views on how social science should be pursued. Hailed upon publication as a cogent and hard-hitting critique, The Sociological Imagination took issue with the ascendant schools of sociology in the United States, calling for a humanist sociology connecting the social, personal, and historical dimensions of our lives. The sociological imagination Mills calls for is a sociological vision, a way of looking at the world that can see links between the apparently private problems of the individual and important social issues. Leading sociologist Amitai Etzioni brings this fortieth anniversary edition up to date with a lucid introduction in which he considers the ways social analysis has progressed since Mills first published his study in 1959. A classic in the field, this book still provides rich food for our imagination.

A toxic ideology rules the world - of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better world. George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how we can build on these findings to create a new politics: a 'politics of belonging'. Both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganized from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society. Urgent, and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.

2020 was a year unlike any other in U.S. history. The Future of Emergency Management After 2020: The New, Normal and Novel provocatively addresses the significant changes to the emergency management field. This title discusses the specific changes, commonalities, and future and persistent challenges for the next decade. The Future of Emergency Management After 2020: The New, Normal and Novel will draw attention to a variety of issues and challenges which will alter the scope, complexity and priorities of future emergency managers. This title will delineate the differences between emergency management and public safety. Additionally, it addresses international challenges that may arise. Faculty, students, and practitioners of emergency management along with anyone with a general interest in emergency management will find this book extremely pertinent and valuable.

Joplin. Aurora. New York/New Jersey. Newtown. Whether the disaster is natural or created by humans, churches respond by providing sanctuary, hope, and practical aid. Pulled from accounts of lay persons and "pastors in disasters," Help and Hope provides practical applications for nonprofessionals and volunteers from faith communities who want to help prepare for and respond to disasters. This book is designed with utility in mind, with quick reference tabs, checklists, and space for your own notes. Help and Hope prepares you to be, literally, the shelter from the storm.

Crisis Intervention takes into account various environments and populations across the lifespan to provide students with practical guidelines for managing crises. Drawing on over 25 years of relevant experience, authors Alan A. Cavaiola and Joseph E. Colford cover several different types of crises frequently encountered by professionals in medical, school, work, and community settings. Models for effectively managing these crises are presented along with the authors' own step-by-step approach, the Listen-Assess-Plan-Commit (LAPC) model, giving students the freedom to select a model that best fits their personal style or a given crisis. Future mental health professionals will gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to help their clients manage the crises they will encounter in their day-to-day lives.

The "BASIC Ph" model of coping and resiliency, developed by Prof. Mooli Lahad and Dr. Ofra Ayalon, was the first to describe coping as an on-going effort to manage life challenges. This is the first book to be published on this world-renowned approach, widely used as an effective resiliency assessment, intervention, and recovery model. Underpinning the model is the suggestion that every person has internal powers, or coping resources, which can be mobilized in stressful situations; the effort to survive coming from a healthy rather than a pathological instinct. The categorization of these coping resources gives the model its name: Belief, Affect, Social, Imagination, Cognition, Physical. This edited volume outlines the theory behind the "BASIC Ph" approach, presents practice-based and research-based interventions and explains their application during and in the wake of both natural and man-made disasters. With wide-ranging chapters from authoritative contributors, the book shows how the "BASIC Ph" model can be successfully applied in family, community, education, health, and business settings. This will be an invaluable text for professionals, academics, and students with an interest in trauma and coping with crisis and disaster.

A spellbinding new talent explores the dark side of creativity through the stories of thirteen tragic architects 'Bold Ventures resembles a pop version of Iain Sinclair's psychogeography or Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer's anti-biography of DH Lawrence' Olivia Laing, Guardian In thirteen chapters, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal for their architects - architects who either killed themselves or are rumoured to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire built in seventeenth-century France to a theatre that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC., and an eerily sinking swimming pool in her hometown of Turnhout. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Charles Darwin to art history, stories from her own life and popular culture, patterns gradually come into focus, as Van den Broeck asks: what is that strange life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator? Threaded through each story, and in prose of great essayistic subtlety, Van den Broeck meditates on the question of suicide - what Albert Camus called the 'one truly serious philosophical problem' - in relation to creativity and public disgrace. The result is a profoundly idiosyncratic book, breaking new ground in literary non-fiction, as well as providing solace and consolation - and a note of caution - to anyone who has ever risked their hand at a creative act. 'What a sensible, intelligent and beautiful book' Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine

For thousands of years, humanity has considered itself the earth's custodian. With our vast potential we are capable of preserving the earth for future generations or causing irreparable harm. For the first time here, environmental lawyer and activist Robert Emmet Hernan provides a comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of what happened at fifteen environmental disasters in ten countries across the globe. This Borrowed Earth is a remarkable collection of stories that cover nuclear explosions, oil spills and fires, chemical spills, polluted air, toxic substances causing awful injuries to children, destruction of rainforest and entire ecosytems. The names associated with these disasters - e.g., Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, Minamata, Love Canal, Seveso, Bhopal and others - will haunt future generations. At the same time, the stories provide a moving tribute to the courage and persistence of ordinary people who struggled to understand what was happening to them and to protect their families and their environment against these onslaughts. Poignant, moving, and inspirational, the events narrated here show how individuals can counterbalance the negligence and criminality of narrow economic interests that threaten our planet. Their stories will provide inspiration for a new generation committed to protecting the environment, and humanity.

'Remarkable . . . grips with the force of a thriller' Robert Macfarlane 'The most brilliant and essential book on Chernobyl since that of Nobel Prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich' Irish Times ** National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2019 ** The official death toll of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, 'the worst nuclear disaster in history', is only 54, and stories today commonly suggest that nature is thriving there. Yet award-winning historian Kate Brown uncovers a much more disturbing story, one in which radioactive isotopes caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the magnitude of the disaster has been actively suppressed. For years after, Soviet scientists, bureaucrats and civilians were documenting staggering increases in birth defects, child mortality, cancers and other life-altering diseases. Worried that this evidence would blow the lid on the effects of radiation release from Cold War weapons-testing, scientists and diplomats from international organizations, including the UN, tried to bury or discredit it. Brown also encounters many everyday heroes, often women, who fought to bring attention to the ballooning human and ecological catastrophe, and adapt to life in a post-nuclear landscape, where the dangerous effects of radiation persist today. Based on a decade of archival and on-the-ground research, Manual for Survival is a gripping historical detective story that brings to light the real consequences of Chernobyl - and the plot to cover them up. 'A troubling book, passionately written and deeply researched' Sunday Times

Chapter 1 provides a short overview of issues Congress may consider in its oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) federal assistance during the 2017 hurricane season (e.g., Harvey, Irma, and Maria) and other disasters (e.g., fires in California). In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria damaged much of the electricity grids' transmission and distribution systems in USVI and Puerto Rico. Chapter 2 provides information on federal support for restoring the electricity grids in Puerto Rico and USVI and factors affecting this support. In 2017 two major hurricanes -- Irma and Maria -- caused extensive damage throughout Puerto Rico. Chapter 3 describes FEMA's Public Assistance spending in Puerto Rico and oversight efforts of federal recovery funds, and initial challenges with the recovery process. Chapter 4 provides information on DRF funding provided to Puerto Rico as a result of assistance associated with a major disaster. The primary focus of the territorial and federal efforts thus far has largely been on restoring electric power in Puerto Rico as reported in chapter 5. In September 2017, two major hurricanes -- Irma and Maria -- struck the USVI, causing billions of dollars in damage to its infrastructure, housing, and economy. Chapter 6 describes the status of FEMA's Public Assistance program funding provided to the USVI in response to the 2017 hurricanes as of October 1, 2018, and the USVI's transition to implementing the Public Assistance alternative procedures in the territory. Chapter 7 provides information on DRF funding provided to the U.S. Virgin Islands as a result of assistance associated with a major disaster. Chapter 8 provides information on DRF funding provided to Florida as a result of assistance associated with a major disaster. Chapter 9 provides a brief overview of the major disaster declaration process and federal assistance programs potentially available to those affected by the 2019 flooding in the Midwest. Following Hurricane Katrina, Congress required FEMA to establish advance contracts for goods and services to enable the government to quickly and effectively mobilize resources in the aftermath of a disaster. Chapter 10 assesses FEMA and USACE's use of advance contracts, FEMA's planning and reporting of selected advance contracts, and challenges, if any, with FEMA's use of these contracts. Chapter 11 addresses the extent to which federal agencies obligated funds on post-disaster contracts in response to the these events, and selected agencies experienced challenges in the planning of selected contracts.

This book is for a broad audience of practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and anyone interested in scenarios, simulations, and disaster planning. Readers are led through several different planning scenarios that have been developed over several years under the auspices of the US Department of Energy, the US Air Force, and continued work at GlobalInt LLC. These scenarios present different security challenges and their potential cascading impacts on global systems - from the melting of glaciers in the Andes, to hurricanes in New York and Hawaii, and on to hybrid disasters, cyberoperations and geoengineering. The book provides a concise and up-to-date overview of the 'lessons learned', with a focus on innovative solutions to the world's pressing energy and environmental security challenges.

The text explains how maps can tell us a lot about where we can anticipate certain hazards, but also how maps can be dangerously misleading. It considers that although it is important to predict and prepare for catastrophic natural hazards, more subtle and persistent phenomena such as pollution and crime also pose serious dangers that we have to cope with on a daily basis. Hazard-zone maps, the text explains, highlight these more insidious hazards and raise awareness about them among planners, local officials and the public. With the help of many maps illustrating examples from all corners of the United States, the text demonstrates how hazard mapping reflects not just scientific understanding of hazards but also perceptions of risk and how risk can be reduced.

Horrified, saddened, and angered: That was the American people's reaction to the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech shootings, and the 2008 financial crisis. In Consuming Catastrophe, Timothy Recuber presents a unique and provocative look at how these four very different disasters took a similar path through public consciousness. He explores the myriad ways we engage with and negotiate our feelings about disasters and tragedies-from omnipresent media broadcasts to relief fund efforts and promises to "Never Forget." Recuber explains how a specific and "real" kind of emotional connection to the victims becomes a crucial element in the creation, use, and consumption of mass mediation of disasters. He links this to the concept of "empathetic hedonism," or the desire to understand or feel the suffering of others. The ineffability of disasters makes them a spectacular and emotional force in contemporary American culture. Consuming Catastrophe provides a lively analysis of the themes and meanings of tragedy and the emotions it engenders in the representation, mediation and consumption of disasters.

Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic is a complete re-evaluation of the loss of Titanic based on evidence that has come to light since the discovery of the wreck in 1985. This collective undertaking is compiled by eleven of the world's foremost Titanic researchers - experts who have spent many years examining the wealth of information that has arisen since 1912. Following the basic layout of the 1912 Wreck Commission Report, this modern report provides fascinating insights into the ship itself, the American and British inquiries, the passengers and crew, the fateful journey and ice warnings received, the damage and sinking, rescue of survivors, the circumstances in connection with the SS Californian and SS Mount Temple, and the aftermath and ramifications that followed the disaster. The book seeks to answer controversial questions, such as whether steerage passengers were detained behind gates, and also reveals the names and aliases of all passengers and crew who sailed on Titanic's maiden voyage. Containing the most extensively referenced chronology of the voyage ever assembled and featuring a wealth of explanatory charts and diagrams, as well as archive photographs, this comprehensive volume is the definitive 'go-to' reference book for this ill-fated ship.

The fateful kick of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, the wild flight before the flames, the astonishingly quick rebuilding--these are the well-known stories of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But as much as Chicago's recovery from disaster was a remarkable civic achievement, the Great Fire is also the story of a city's people divided and at odds. This is the story that Karen Sawislak tells so revealingly in this book.
In a detailed account, drawn on memoirs, private correspondences, and other documents, Sawislak chronicles years of widespread, sometimes bitter, social and political conflict in the fire's wake, from fights over relief soup kitchens to cries against profiteering and marches on city hall by workers burned out of their homes. She shows how through the years of rebuilding the people of Chicago struggled to define civic order--and the role that "good citizens" would play within it. As they rebuilt, she writes, Chicagoans confronted hard questions about charity and social welfare, work and labor relations, morality, and the limits of state power. Their debates in turn exposed the array of values and interests that different class, ethnic, and religious groups brought to these public discussions.
"Sawislak combines the copious detail of a historian with the vivid portrayals of a storyteller in her investigation of the infamous Chicago fire. . . . Highlighted by historical maps, plates and engravings, with an epilogue and notes, "Smoldering City" presents an extremely thorough and engaging study of this extraordinary disaster."--"Publishers Weekly"

Before and after a disaster strikes, it may be helpful to understand the broad outlines of the national emergency management structure and where authority rests at various stages of the process. This book provides information that can aid policy makers as they navigate through the many levels of responsibility, and numerous policy pressure points, by having an understanding of the laws and administrative policies governing the disaster response and recovery process. The book also reviews the legislative framework that exists for providing federal assistance, as well as the implementing policies the executive branch employs to provide supplemental help to state, tribal, and local governments during time of disasters. Furthermore, the book includes a summary of federal programs that provide federal disaster assistance to individual survivors, states, territories, local governments, and nongovernmental entities following a natural or man-made disaster; and reviews several key concepts about these federal assets, and highlights possible issues Congress may consider when evaluating their authorisation and appropriation.

Nearly all major roads and bridges in the United States are part of the federal-aid highway system and are therefore eligible for assistance from the Emergency Relief Program (ER) of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). ER assistance is restricted to roads and bridges on the federal aid highway system, which essentially includes all public roads not functionally classified as either local or rural minor collectors. For disaster-damaged roads that are not federal-aid highways, states may request reimbursement for emergency road repairs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA may also allow limited funding under its Public Assistance Program for such things as snow removal and related operating costs during extreme snowfalls, which are not eligible for ER funds. This book describes FHWA assistance for the repair and reconstruction of highways and bridges damaged by disasters or catastrophic failures. It begins with a brief discussion of the legislative origins of federal assistance, and then addresses eligibility issues and program operation. Moreover, this book discusses agricultural disaster assistance; presents backgrounds on emergency agricultural land assistance programs; describes snow assistance and assistance for severe winter storms, the declaration process, the criteria used to make eligibility determinations, and the types of assistance that are provided after the President has issued a major disaster declaration for the incident; discusses federal non-agricultural programs for emergency water assistance during droughts; commercial fishery disasters; and examines the Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) benefits.

The Robert T Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act authorises the President to issue "major disaster" or "emergency" declarations before or after catastrophes occur. Emergency declarations trigger aid that protects property, public health, and safety and lessens or averts the threat of an incident becoming a catastrophic event. Given their purpose, the emergency declarations may precede an event. A major disaster declaration is generally issued after catastrophes occur, and constitutes broader authority for federal agencies to provide supplemental assistance to help state and local governments, families and individuals, and certain nonprofit organisations recover from the incident. Since the decision for a declaration is at the discretion of the President, there has been some speculation regarding the influence of political favor in these decisions. Some have posited various connections between the political party of the governor requesting or the prominence of some state's congressional delegation on committee's important to FEMA. This book discusses the evolution of this process, how it is administered and recent changes enacted in law as well as amending legislation that has been introduced. The book then provides background on key elements of the Public Assistance (PA) Grant Program, which provides financial grant assistance to states, tribes, and local communities both in the response to and recovery from significant disasters. Finally, this book concludes with discussion of several policy issues that Congress may wish to consider when evaluating the PA Program in the future, including considerations of significant prospective changes to the PA Program and the role of the PA Program in the context of other federal agency disaster assistance authorities.

The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, operational since mid 2007, rapidly estimates the most affected locations and the population exposure at different levels of shaking intensities. The PAGER system has significantly improved the way aid agencies determine the scale response needed in the aftermath of an earthquake. Some engineering and seismological expertise is often required to digest PAGER's exposure estimate and turn it into estimated fatalities and economic losses. This has been the focus of PAGER's most recent developments. This book discusses the estimated economic consequences of large earthquakes along with an appendix of earthquake data.

This book presents current research in the study of the devastating earthquake which occurred in Haiti in 2010. Topics discussed include the crisis and response as a result of the Haiti earthquake; charitable contributions for Haiti's earthquake victims; the Haitian economy and HOPE Act; FY2010 supplemental for disaster assistance and Haiti relief and the U.S. immigration policy on Haitian migrants.