The voluntary sector was central to the COVID-19 response: fulfilling basic needs, highlighting new and existing inequalities and coordinating action where the state had been slow to respond. This book curates rigorous academic, policy and practice-based research into the response and adaptation of the UK voluntary sector during the pandemic. Contributions explore the ways the sector responded to new challenges and the longer-term consequences for the sector's workforce, volunteers and beneficiaries. Written for researchers and practitioners, this book considers what the voluntary sector can learn from the pandemic to maximise its contribution in the event of future crises.

"By far the single most important account and analysis of the Katrina catastrophe." David L. Clark, McMaster University In his newest provocative book, prominent social critic Henry A. Giroux shows how the tragedy and suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals a much larger crisis in the United States-one that threatens the very nature of individual freedom and inclusive democracy. This crisis extends far beyond matters of leadership, governance, or the Bush administration. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart of democracy and must be understood within a broader set of antidemocratic forces that not only made the social disaster underlying Katrina possible, but also contribute to an emerging authoritarianism in the United States. Questions regarding who is going to die and who is going to live are driving a new form of authoritarianism in the United States. Within this form of "dirty democracy" a new and more insidious set of forces-embedded in our global economy-have largely given up on the sanctity of human life, rendering some groups as disposable and privileging others. Giroux offers up a vision of hope that creates the conditions for multiple collective and global struggles that refuse to use politics as an act of war and markets as the measure of democracy. Making human beings superfluous is the essence of totalitarianism, and democracy is the antidote in urgent need of being reclaimed. Katrina will keep the hope of such a struggle alive because for many of us the images of those floating bodies serve as a desperate reminder of what it means when justice, as the lifeblood of democracy, becomes cold and indifferent.

"By far the single most important account and analysis of the Katrina catastrophe." David L. Clark, McMaster University In his newest provocative book, prominent social critic Henry A. Giroux shows how the tragedy and suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals a much larger crisis in the United States-one that threatens the very nature of individual freedom and inclusive democracy. This crisis extends far beyond matters of leadership, governance, or the Bush administration. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart of democracy and must be understood within a broader set of antidemocratic forces that not only made the social disaster underlying Katrina possible, but also contribute to an emerging authoritarianism in the United States. Questions regarding who is going to die and who is going to live are driving a new form of authoritarianism in the United States. Within this form of "dirty democracy" a new and more insidious set of forces-embedded in our global economy-have largely given up on the sanctity of human life, rendering some groups as disposable and privileging others. Giroux offers up a vision of hope that creates the conditions for multiple collective and global struggles that refuse to use politics as an act of war and markets as the measure of democracy. Making human beings superfluous is the essence of totalitarianism, and democracy is the antidote in urgent need of being reclaimed. Katrina will keep the hope of such a struggle alive because for many of us the images of those floating bodies serve as a desperate reminder of what it means when justice, as the lifeblood of democracy, becomes cold and indifferent.

Flood hazards and the risks they present to human health are an increasing concern across the globe, in terms of lives, well-being and livelihoods, and the public resources needed to plan for, and deal with, the health impacts. This book is the first detailed assessment and discussion of the global health implications of flooding and future flood risk. It combines an analysis of the human health impacts of flooding with analysis of individual and societal response to those risks, and sets these findings in light of potential future increases in flood hazard as a result of climate change. Written and edited by leading researchers and practitioners on flood hazards and human health, the volume brings together findings from epidemiological, environmental, social and institutional studies, with analysis rooted in an approach that emphasizes the developmental as well as environmental causes of flood risk, and the socially differentiated nature of vulnerability and coping capacity. The first part of the book sets out the scope of the issues, and provides a detailed discussion of the global health impacts of floods and the nature of human response to the health risks posed. The second part presents new research evidence on specific health aspects of floods covering mental health, infectious diseases, local level responses and the responses of health systems - drawing on case study material from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, including the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The conclusion synthesizes insights from the previous chapters and discusses priorities for policy, practice and research. It draws out implications for present and future adaptation to flooding, and emphasizes the need to integrate action on health with the broader agenda of long-term risk reduction. This is indispensable reading for professionals and researchers working on hazard and disaster planning, risk reduction and public health in all countries and contexts.

'Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory' Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings 'Sumptuous and astute ... An absolute delight to read' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People 'A compelling hurricane of a book' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family in Miami navigating recession, racism and Hurricane Andrew. You want a home. You want to win back your girlfriend's admiration. You want to prove that your father bet on the wrong son. 1979. Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But they soon learn that the welcome in America will be far from warm. Trelawny, their youngest son, comes of age in a society which regards him with suspicion and confusion, greeting him with the puzzled question 'What are you?' Their eldest son Delano's longing for a better future for his own children is equalled only by his recklessness in trying to secure it. As both brothers navigate the obstacles littered in their path - an unreliable father, racism, a financial crisis and Hurricane Andrew - they find themselves pitted against one another. Will their rivalry be the thing that finally tears their family apart? The thrilling linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You pulse with inimitable style, heart and barbed humour while unravelling what it means to carve out an existence between cultures, homes and pay checks. They announce Escoffery as a once in a generation talent and chronicler of life at its most gruesome and hopeful. 'Escoffery's is a strong, much needed new voice in our literature' Percival Everett, Booker shortlisted author of The Trees 'A welcome reminder of what fiction can do' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'Brilliant wit, real heart and electric humour' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black

This book employs epistemological, methodological and discursive approaches to explore the practices of tourism stakeholders in Covid-19 affected destinations and to understand and explain their everyday real-time doings and sayings. It discusses the changing practices of tourists and stakeholders at both micro and meso levels and provides a range of contexts and destination case studies offering insights into supply and demand. The issues examined in the volume will have continued implications for further study of the relationships between tourism, crises, pandemics and global travel. It will be a useful resource for researchers and students in tourism studies, geography, politics and policy, as well as sociology, history, crisis management and development studies.

"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.

This book examines the impact of coal mining on the lives of former-labour tenant and rural communities in post-apartheid South Africa.

No Last Place to Rest: Coal Mining and Dispossession in South Africa is an exploration of the ongoing struggles faced by families in the Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa whose lives have been upended by the relentless expansion of coal mining operations. These regions, burdened with the task of fulfilling the nation's energy needs and boosting the country’s economy, witness daily the harsh realities of dispossession that extend far beyond the mere loss of property.

Dineo Skosana presents a compelling argument that dispossession remains a present-day reality and crisis, contradicting the notion that it is merely a relic of the past in the post-apartheid landscape. It challenges the narrow perspective that equates land loss in material and economic terms only. Skosana considers the impact of grave relocations―a common occurrence in these mining-dominated locales― and the profound spiritual anguish and dehumanisation communities endure as their lands are excavated. In African societies, connections to the land extend beyond the material; land has a sacred and ancestral value. Grave relocations disrupt this connection families have with their ancestors. In dispossessing not only the living but also the dead from their lands, the author argues that the act wounds the collective soul of a people, eroding their cultural heritage, and collective identity and belonging.

This book offers a rich ethnographic account of the experiences, struggles and resistance of the affected communities as well as a critical analysis of the legal and policy frameworks that enable their exploitation. In relation to the ‘land question’ in South Africa, No Last Place to Rest presents deep insights for communities, activists and government sectors acting in support of social justice and redress.

Katrina was the signal event of the new century, a body blow to the national self-image. Scenes Americans expect to see in far-off, ungovernable countries have now unfolded in the mightiest nation on earth: victims struggling to survive amid depravity and death, an entire city reduced to an empty shell, a diaspora of refugees unseen since the days of the Dust Bowl.Even as rebuilding gets underway, a sense of shock and confusion lingers. Indeed, sensationalism and political finger-pointing have made it nearly impossible to distinguish the truth from the spin. But now, John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein cut through the confusion to offer a clear explanation for the greatest natural disaster in American history. PATH OF DESTRUCTION isn't just a book about the storm, those who survived, and those who didn't; it's also an account into the dreadful inadequacies that existed prior to 2005, an indictment of the Washington officials who failed to act, and a scientific investigation into why these huge storms are coming now.Brilliantly written and fiercely reported, PATH OF DESTRUCTION is necessary reading for all who wish to understand the past, present, and future of American natural disasters

Heartbreaking stories from survivors along the Texas Gulf Coast Hurricane Harvey was one of the worst American natural disasters in recorded history. It ravaged the Texas Gulf Coast, and left thousands of people homeless in its wake. In Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath, Kevin M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew L. Spialek offer first-hand accounts from survivors themselves, providing a rare, on-the-ground perspective of natural disaster recovery. Drawing on interviews from more than 350 survivors, the authors trace the experiences of individuals and their communities, both rich and poor, urban and rural, white, Latinx, and Black, and how they navigated the long and difficult road to recovery after Hurricane Harvey. From Corpus Christi to Galveston, they paint a vivid, compelling picture of heartache and destruction, as well as resilience and recovery, as survivors slowly begin rebuilding their lives and their communities. An emotionally provocative read, Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath provides insight into how ordinary people experience and persevere through a disaster in an age of environmental vulnerability.

Decision-Making in Emergency Management examines decisions the authors have made over their careers based on their combined training, experience and instinct. Through a broad range of case studies, readers discover how experience impacts decision-making in conjunction with research and tools available. While the use of science, data and industry standards are always the best option when it comes to handling emergency situations, not all emergency situations fit one known solution. This book comprehensively explores the question "Is 'instinct' a viable factor when faced with a challenging situation and how close does it match up with the best science available?"

For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists and ordinary people listened anxiously to rumblings in the long quiescent volcano Mount St. Helens. Still, when a massive explosion took the top off the mountain, no one was prepared. Fifty-seven people died and the lives of many others were changed forever. Steve Olson interweaves history, science and vivid personal stories to portray the disaster as a multi-faceted turning point. Powerful economic, political and historical forces influenced who died when the volcano erupted. The eruption of Mount St. Helens transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience and our perceptions of how to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet.

Contents:
Foreword Preface List of figures and tables Part 1: Framework and Theory 1. The challenge of disasters and our approach 1.1 In at the deep end 1.2 Conventional views of disaster 1.3 What is vulnerability? 1.4 Changes since the first edition 1.5 The International decade for natural disaster reduction 1.6 Convergence and critique 1.7 Audiences 1.8 Scope and plan of the book 1.9 Limits and assumptions 2. The disaster pressure and release model 2.1 The nature of vulnerability 2.2 Cause and effects in the disaster pressure model 2.3 Time and the chain of explanation 2.4 Limits to our knowledge 2.5 Global trends and dynamic pressures 2.6 Uses of the pressure and release model 3. Access to resources and coping in adversity 3.1 Access to resources - an introduction 3.2 New thinking since 1994 3.3 'Normal life' - the formal Access model 3.4 Coping and access to safety Part 2: Vulnerability and Hazard Types 4. Famine and natural hazards 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Famines and their causes 4.3 Explanations of famine 4.4 Complex emergencies, policy famines and human rights 4.5 Causes, pressures, unsafe conditions and famine 4.6 Access and famines 4.7 Policy 4.8 Conclusion 5. Biological hazards 5.1 Introduction 5.2 What are biological hazards? 5.3 Limitations to our treatment of biological hazards 5.4 Biological links with other hazards 5.5 Livelihoods, resources and disasters 5.6 Vulnerability-creating processes 5.7 Pressures affecting defences against biological hazards 5.8 Root causes and pressures 5.9 Steps toward risk reduction 6. Floods 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Floods as known risks 6.3 Disastrous outcomes for vulnerable people 6.4 Floods and vulnerability 6.5 Summary: flood prevention and mitigation 7. Coastal storms 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The physical hazard 7.3 Patterns of vulnerability 7.4 Case-studies 7.5 Policy responses 8. Earthquakes and volcanoes 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Classic case-studies: Guatemala and Mexico 8.3 Recent case-studies 8.4 Volcanoes and related hazards 8.5 Goma, Congo, eruption of Mount Nyiragongo 2002 8.6 Policy response and mitigation Part 3: Towards a Safer Environment 9. Towards a safer environment 9.1 Towards a safer environment: are statements of intent merely hot air? 9.2 From Yokohama to Johannesburg via Geneva 9.3 Risk reduction objectives Notes Bibliography

This is a comprehensive guide to all types of natural and man made disasters and their effect on buildings. It gives overall guidance and a basic technical understanding of prevention, mitigation and management of disaster, and outlines a checklist of preventive design elements for each situation. Every category is illustrated with a case study which pin points the essential information that is crucial to architects and engineers in designing buildings with disaster prevention in mind. The aim of the book is to give a clear understanding of the nature of events and problems, and to enable readers to respond with knowledge to the unique demands placed on their designs. A special emphasis is also placed on re-building as an opportunity to start again. For the specialists this is a process of constant learning and improving techniques in the light of events past.

Natural Disaster and Development in a Globalizing World makes clear that there are links between global scale processes and local experiences of disaster, but underlies the difficulty of attributing blame for individual disasters on specific global pressures. It argues that action to reduce disaster needs to be coordinated at the local, national and global scales and that there is a need for greater integration across the physical and social sciences. In this context, the human rights agenda is seen as a way of moving disaster reduction efforts forward.

* What makes some cities less vulnerable and more resilient in the face of natural disasters?* Examines the factors involved and draws invaluable lessons from case studies and analysis* Major contribution to urban studies, social development and disaster managementWhen disaster strikes in cities the effects can be far worse than in other human environments. But which factors determine how vulnerable a city is to such events, and how resilient it will be in recovering from them? Focusing on cities in the global South, this book examines the conditions that lead to high losses from urban disasters and the factors that enable some households and communities to withstand disaster more effectively. Through a range of detailed studies, it shows that strengthening local capacity-through appropriate housing, infrastructure and livelihoods-is crucial to improving resilience, and that effective community or municipal government is essential if cities are to cope with disasters successfully.This book marks a significant advance in our understanding of what works and what doesn't when cities are faced with extreme conditions, and how this can be applied when dealing with other events and stresses.

This book contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between migration, vulnerability, resilience and social justice associated with flooding across diverse environmental, social and policy contexts in Southeast Asia. It challenges simple analyses of flooding as a singular driver of migration, and instead considers the ways in which floods figure in migration-based livelihoods and amongst already mobile populations. The book develops a conceptual framework based on a 'mobile political ecology' in which particular attention is paid to the multidimensionality, temporalities and geographies of vulnerability. Rather than simply emphasising the capacities (or lack thereof) of individuals and households, the focus is on identifying factors that instigate, manage and perpetuate vulnerable populations and places: these include the sociopolitical dynamics of floods, flood hazards and risky environments, migration and migrant-based livelihoods and the policy environments through which all of these take shape. The book is organised around a series of eight empirical urban and rural case studies from countries in Southeast Asia, where lives are marked by mobility and by floods associated with the region's monsoonal climate. The concluding chapter synthesises the insights of the case studies, and suggests future policy directions. Together, the chapters highlight critical policy questions around the governance of migration, institutionalised disaster response strategies and broader development agendas.

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

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

Between Sanity and Madness: Mental Illness from Ancient Greece to the Neuroscientific Era examines several perennial issues about mental illness: how different societies have distinguished mental disorders from normality; whether mental illnesses are similar to or different from organic conditions; and the ways in which different eras conceive of the causes of mental disorder. It begins with the earliest depictions of mental illness in Ancient Greek literature, philosophy, and medicine and concludes with the portrayals found in modern neuroscience. In contrast to the tremendous advances other branches of medicine display in answering questions about the nature, causes, and treatments of physical diseases, current psychiatric knowledge about what qualities of madness distinguish it from sanity, the resemblance of mental and physical pathologies, and the kinds of factors that lead people to become mentally ill does not show any steady growth or, arguably, much progress. The immense recent technological advances in brain science have not yet led to corresponding improvements in understandings of and explanations for mental illnesses. These perplexing phenomena remain almost as mysterious now as they were millennia ago.

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.

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.

This book is concerned with the causes and consequences of river and coastal floods and the ways in which people can respond to the flood hazard. Individual chapters address issues such as floods as natural hazards; impacts and interpretations of flood hazard; causes, spatial characteristics and form of river floods and coastal floods; flood estimation; flood defence; flood forecasting and warning; other responses including land use planning and insurance; and a concluding discussion of problems, policies and prospects. Floods has been written by two experienced and successful authors whose complementary skills are combined to give a broad, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the subject which can be used not only as a text book or learning manual but also as an authoritative reference source. This has been achieved by organising and structuring the material to demonstrate the continuity and linkages between the causes and impacts of flooding and the many possible responses to the flood hazard. At the same time the book ensures that discussion of each of the main themes and topics is, as far as is practicable, self-contained. The book is timely in several aspects. It addresses the topicality and universality of floods which are an increasing hazard at a time of global environmental change (climate, land use, population distribution etc.). It also offers the layman and practitioner alike a synthesis and clarification of many individual research efforts near the close of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

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.