Contents:
Foreword Acknowledgement Introduction: Of Jellyfish and Coups 1. 'Vulnerability' as Western Discourse 2. Environment and Hazard in Southeast Asia 3. A History of Hazard in the Philippines 4. The 'Costs' of Hazard in the Contemporary Philippines 5. The Politics of Disaster Management and Relief 6. The Economics of Red Tides 7. The Social Order and the El Nino Southern Oscillation 8. Cultures of Disaster Conclusion: Hazard as a Frequent Life Experience Notes Bibliography

This book places Oakland's public policy response (nine major ordinances) to building damage suffered in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in a full historical and intergovernmental context. Using a combined non-decision making and advocacy coalition approach, the book demonstrates how and why hazardous-structure abatement was kept off the local political agenda prior to the Loma Prieta disaster. The book then demonstrates how and why city government in Oakland became proactive on the problem of earthquake-damaged and, more importantly, earthquake-vulnerable buildings in general after the disaster.

Human cultures have been interacting with natural hazards since the dawn of time. This book explores these interactions in detail and revisits some famous catastrophes including the eruptions of Thera and Vesuvius. These studies demonstrate that diverse human cultures had well-developed strategies which facilitated their response to extreme natural events.


eBook available with sample pages: 0203165101

Reporting Human Rights provides a systematic examination of human rights news and reporting practices from inside the world of television news production. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the book discusses the potential of journalism in contributing to human rights protection, awareness and debate, in ignoring, silencing or misrepresenting human rights issues around the world or, in extreme situations, in inciting hatred, genocide and crimes against humanity. It provides insight into how journalists translate human rights issues, revealing different reporting patterns and levels of detail in reporting, and suggesting different levels of engagement with human rights problems. The book explains the most important factors that encourage or limit the coverage of human rights news. Grounded in a close examination of the news production processes and key moments where possible human rights stories are contemplated, decided or eventually ignored, the book opens up new insights into the complexities and constraints of human rights reporting today.

This volume deals with important social-science issues of law and legal control pertaining to disasters and hazards in a variety of contexts. The orientation of this volume is driven by relevant recent occurrences, such as hurricanes Katrina and Irene in the United States; the 2010 BP oil spill, and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Thematically diverse within the province of the social and behavioral sciences related to law and law-related problems, the chapters in this volume are not restricted in terms of theoretical approach and methodological orientation. Topics addressed include: legal controls pertaining to disaster prevention, response, and mitigation; regulations and policies concerning hazardous conditions; and crime and the control thereof in post-disaster situations.

Explores the unintended consequences of civic activism in a disaster-prone city After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people swiftly mobilized to rebuild their neighborhoods, often assisted by government organizations, nonprofits, and other major institutions. In Rethinking Community Resilience, Min Hee Go shows that these recovery efforts are not always the panacea they seem to be, and can actually escalate the city's susceptibility to future environmental hazards. Drawing upon interviews, public records, and more, Go explores the hidden costs of community resilience. She shows that-despite good intentions-recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina exacerbated existing race and class inequalities, putting disadvantaged communities at risk. Ultimately, Go shows that when governments, nonprofits, and communities invest in rebuilding rather than relocating, they inadvertently lay the groundwork for a cycle of vulnerabilities. As cities come to terms with climate change adaptation-rather than prevention-Rethinking Community Resilienceprovides insight into the challenges communities increasingly face in the twenty-first century.

Mass Fatality and Casualty Incidents: A Field Guide presents in checklist form the recommended responses to events that result in mass fatalities, such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the crash of a jet airliner, or the attack on the World Trade Center. All cities in the United States will have to have a mass fatality disaster plan in effect by the end of 1999.

Mr. Jensen is a leading authority in this area and provides training for police, fire and hospital personnel (including EMTs and social workers), local, state, federal and international emergency planners and responders.

This book details actions that are part of a mass fatality incident response. Specifically, they are the actions that begin once life and property preservation ceases and continues through to the release of the deceased. Thus, primary focus is on search, recovery, medicolegal investigation, personal effects operations, family assistance operations, and media operations. Ancillary steps include logistics support, security, responder protection, attitudes and coping with mass death.

Psychological service in the wake of cataclysmic life events has emerged as a prominent and visible component of social response. This has generated a bandwagon of potential service providers, service approaches, and service venues. Where once help was scarce, it has become plentiful enough to engender its own set of conflicts and contradictions along with its intended solace and aid. "Response to Disaster" reconciles the technical, theoretical, and applied interests represented in these various populations and provides a contemporary treatment that can help define the directions of their increasing interaction.

Wars and natural disasters--from the Balkans to the Sudan, and from Afghanistan to Central Africa--have increasingly placed humanitarian workers in the crossfire. Kevin M. Cahill has assembled an international team of renowned experts to offer a much-needed assessment of the moral, legal and political dilemmas and consequences of humanitarian assistance.
Focusing on health issues, "A Framework for Survival" takes an unflinching look at the reality facing the nations and people involved, from refugees to relief organizations. In contrast to conventional military, economic and geopolitical strategies, it suggests rational and effective solutions and foreign policy recommendations. With the collapse of many government infrastructures since the end of the Cold War, the success or failure of humanitarian efforts may, to a large extent, define the world's chances for survival.

"Birkland has produced our first systematic study of the impact of focusing events on the public policy, and it is wonderful..... This book should be read by democratic theorists as well as public policy scholars" Bryan Jone, University of Washington

Disasters, like earthquakes are known as focusing events - sudden calamities that cause both citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to a public problem and often to press for solutions. This book, the first comprehensive analysis of these dramatic events, explains how and why some public disasters change public agendas and ultimately, public policies.

Thomas A. Birkland explores important successes and failures in the public policy process by analyzing the political outcomes of four types of events: earthquakes, hurricanes, oil spills and nuclear accidents. Using empirical data to go beyond an intuitive understanding of focusing events , he presents a theory of where wnd when these events will gain attention and how they trigger political reactions.

Of all the huge natural disasters that claimed the lives of thousands in Asia, the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 was the largest, estimated to have killed more than 230,000 people. The scope of damage brought about by this natural disaster urges focus on recovery and post-disaster reconstruction from several perspectives. Here we find an in-depth ethnography of Thailand and the role of culture and religion as an underpinning issue in post-disaster recovery. Following the post-tsunami recovery over five years, the book provides knowledge on socio-cultural responses from affected local communities after natural hazards, and is based on original material collected in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami. With a focus on how culture and religion interplay in the processes of building resilience and decreasing vulnerability, it gives a deeper understanding of how disasters are experienced and dealt with on a local level. It examines survivors' experiences of rituals and ceremonies that became a part of the survivors' lives in new ways after the tsunami, offering psychological reassurance and religious efficaciousness as well as communication links between themselves and the deceased. Using observations, narratives and material from in-depth interviews with survivors, relatives, relief workers, officials and Buddhist monks and nuns, this book contributes to the research on anthropology of disaster and to the development of research on cultural resilience and religion in post-disaster recovery. It will be of interest to scholars of Disaster Studies, Buddhist Studies and Asian Studies.

The Children of Atlantis is a collection of statements by a hundred young people who have fled various parts of the former Yugoslavia in the face of war and destruction, nationalism, hatred and ethnic cleansing, the pressure to take sides, and the draft. As refugees, they are seeking to continue or complete their education at universities around the world, all the while confronting the task of making something of their lives amid the catastrophe that has overwhelmed them, their families, and their homeland. Gathered here are extracts from essays written by the students describing the circumstances that drove them to leave their homes, and the different ways (both optimistic and bleak) they envision their futures. It offers a snapshot of virtually a whole generation of young people on the threshold of their working lives, uprooted from the world they grew up in. Their voices are varied, expressing pain, anger, uncertainty, hope, and the positive energy of youth. What they have in common is a sense of disbelief and bewilderment at the forces unleashed in what was their country.
In a way this is a war-report, though not prepared by foreign war-reporters or covered from the frontlines. Rather, it is a diverse chronicle revealing the unseen psychological aspects of war, written by the victims from the depths of their souls.

Climate change tends to increase the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters, which puts many people at risk. Economic, social and environmental impacts further increase vulnerability to disasters and tend to set back development, destroy livelihoods, and increase disparity nationally and worldwide. This book addresses the differential vulnerability of people and places, introducing concepts and methods for analysis and illustrating the impact on local, regional, national, and global scales. The chapters in the first section set the stage by focusing on the relationship between climate change and disasters and by broadly exploring their economic and social aftermaths. Further chapters explore particular impacts of climate change, including the social, political and even military conflicts that may arise over scarce natural resources, as well as the effects on biodiversity and thus the natural environment. Chapters in the last section discuss responses to climate change in terms of information sharing and preparedness, adaptation and mitigation - particularly the relevance of improving the role of markets, through investment and insurance, to face these challenges. Researchers and policymakers involved in the study of climate change and disaster prevention will find this comprehensive volume of great interest.

The acrimonious debate over British policy towards refugees from the Nazi rA(c)gime has scarcely died down even now, some 60 years later. Bitter charges of indifference and lack of feeling are still levelled at politicians and civil servants, and the assertion is made that Great Britain's record on refugee matters is shabby and unworthy of its liberal traditions. Island Refuge is the definitive account of a largely unexplored and still highly controversial episode in twentieth-century history. This reprinted edition contains a new preface discussing historiographical developments since the first edition.

On the 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed a tower block in West London, seventy-two people lost their lives and hundreds of others were left displaced and traumatised. The Grenfell Tower fire is the epicentre of a long history of violence enacted by government and corporations. On its second anniversary activists, artists and academics come together to respond, remember and recover the disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire illustrates Britain's symbolic order; the continued logic of colonialism, the disposability of working class lives, the marketisation of social provision and global austerity politics, and the negligence and malfeasance of multinational contractors. Exploring these topics and more, the contributors construct critical analysis from legal, cultural, media, community and government responses to the fire, asking whether, without remedy for multifaceted power and violence, we will ever really be 'after' Grenfell? With poetry by Ben Okri and Tony Walsh, and photographs by Parveen Ali, Sam Boal and Yolanthe Fawehinmi. With contributions from Phil Scraton, Daniel Renwick, Nadine El-Enany, Sarah Keenan, Gracie Mae Bradley and The Radical Housing Network.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

Increasingly, community leaders around the world face major natural and economic disasters that require them to find ways to rebuild both physical infrastructure and the local economy. Doing this effectively requires an understanding of how various parts of the community are interconnected, as well as information as to which revitalization approaches have succeeded in the past. Community investment in recovery is essential and, in some cases, may require local leaders to rethink how it can be financed and arranged. This book presents a conceptual framework based on the community capitals, and describes approaches that have succeeded in situations where local leaders have coordinated efforts to rebuild and revitalize local conditions. Contributions provide examples of successful approaches around the world, thus analysing potential strategies for addressing disasters of many different types in various cultural settings. In this way, the book provides insights into a variety of approaches based on applications of accepted community development theory and concepts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

Includes Case Studies from a Range of Event Sites Introduction to Crowd Science examines the growing rate of crowd-related accidents and incidents around the world. Using tools, methods, and worked examples gleaned from over 20 years of experience, this text provides an understanding of crowd safety. It establishes how crowd accidents and incidents (specifically mass fatalities in crowded spaces) can occur. The author explores the underlying causes and implements techniques for crowd risk analysis and crowd safety engineering that can help minimize and even eliminate occurrences altogether. Understand Overall Crowd Dynamics and Levels of Complex Structure The book outlines a simple modeling approach to crowd risk analysis and crowds safety in places of public assembly. With consideration for major events, and large-scale urban environments, the material focuses on the practical elements of developing the crowd risk analysis and crowd safety aspects of an event plan. It outlines a range of modeling techniques, including line diagrams that represent crowd flow, calculations of the speed at which a space can fill, and the time it takes for that space to reach critical and crush density. It also determines what to consider during the event planning and approval (licensing/permitting) phases of the event process. Introduction to Crowd Science addresses key questions and presents a systematic approach to managing crowd risks in complex sites. It provides an understanding of the complexity of a site, that helps you plan for crowds in public places.

This book contains the proceeding of the conferences on Disasters and the Small Dwelling, held at Oxford in September 1990. The 26 papers cover recent experiences of post-disaster shelter and housing provision, review what has been achieved, what needs disseminating and implementing, and assesses what needs further development. The volume thus defines an international agenda to achieve safer low-income dwellings in the course of the 1990s, designated International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction by the UN. It will be essential reading for anyone - whether governmental or non-governmental agency officials, academic researchers, representatives of private industry or consultants - whose work involves analysis, shelter, mitigation and reconstruction programmes for low-income dwellings in disaster-prone areas.

Natural disasters make dramatic reading. Every year, some area of the world is devastated by a disaster, with enormous consequent loss of life and disruption to livelihoods. What can be done to alleviate this? Why are such disasters so lethal? Why do people expose themselves to such hazards? Do mitigation programmes help? What effect does aid really have on the areas that receive it? By examining one particular cyclone-prone area of Southern India in great detail over a 10-year period Peter Winchester has come up with some perceptive answers to the questions. In particular, he formulates a set of five 'golden rules' for disaster management. The book will provide valuable and thought-provoking reading for anyone involved with disaster management, and will be essential for all those whose work involves aid or development in disaster-prone areas.

An estimated 2 billion people live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas, and governments and international agencies seek avenues to enable socio-economic recovery and to support people as they try to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery: Facing Fragilities provides an in-depth understanding of people's strategies in the face of conflict and disaster-related fragility and examines how policies and aid interventions enable their socio-economic recovery - or fail to do so. Through field-based research, the book captures the complex and unfolding realities on the ground, exploring the interfaces between economic, social and institutional change. This provides a rich and unique vantage point from which to reflect on the impact of recovery policies. The book provides a set of cross-cutting findings that aim to inform policy and practice. The detailed case studies of the book lay bare key dynamics of recovery. Set against the findings from two chapters that review the literature, the cases provide evidence-based lessons for socio-economic recovery. The chapters combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies and form a valuable resource to researchers and postgraduate students of disaster management, conflict, humanitarian aid and social reconstruction, and development management.

Hurricane Katrina inflicted damage on a scale unprecedented in American history, nearly destroying a major city and killing thousands of its citizens. With far too little help from indifferent, incompetent government agencies, the poor bore the brunt of the disaster. The residents of traditionally impoverished and minority communities suffered incalculable losses and endured unimaginable conditions. And the few facilities that did exist to help victims quickly became miserable, dangerous places. Now, the victims of Hurricane Katrina find themselves spread across the United States, far from the homes they left and faced with the prospect of starting anew. Families are struggling to secure jobs, homes, schools, and a sense of place in unfamiliar surroundings. Meanwhile, the rebuilding of their former home remains frustrating out of their hands. This bracing read brings readers to the heart of the disaster and its aftermath as those who survived it speak with candor and eloquence of their lives then and now.