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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Social impact of disasters
Development schemes are common throughout the third world. Many
fail, but the reasons for failure or success are only too often not
adequately studied. In this monograph two schemes started in
Basutoland - now Lesotho - are intensively analysed and compared:
the first, which was abandoned in 1961, primarily by means of
documentary material; the second, which was and still is successful
in at least part of the area, mainly through observation and field
research. The analysis reveals the factors making for success or
failure, particularly in the fields of politics, economics, and
communication. The relevance of the study extends beyond Lesotho
and even Africa, the analysis dealing with problems common to
introduced social change and development in any part of the world.
The Economics of Famine presents an important collection of
outstanding contributions to the economic analysis of famine. The
first part consists of theoretical papers, including Amartya Sen's
classic exposition of the entitlement approach to famine analysis,
various extensions and critiques of this approach, and more recent
developments in the economics of famine. The second part consists
of empirical case studies of famine in specific countries or
regions, including Ireland, Russia, China, South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa. This innovative volume provides invaluable
reference material for development economists and all those
concerned with the persistence of famine in the modern world.
A History of World Agriculture begins with the emergence of
agriculture after thousands of years in which human societies had
depended on hunting and gathering. It shows how agricultural
techniques developed in the different regions of the world, and how
this extraordinary wealth of knowledge, tradition, and natural
variety is endangered today by global capitalism, as it forces the
unequal agrarian heritages of the world to conform to the norms of
profit. During the twentieth century, mechanization, motorization,
and specialization have brought to a halt the pattern of cultural
and environmental responses that characterized the global history
of agriculture until then. Today, a small number of corporations
have the capacity to impose on the planet the farming methods that
they find most profitable. Mazoyer and Roudart propose an
alternative global strategy that can safeguard the economies of the
poor countries, reinvigorate the global economy, and create a
livable future for all.
What kind of country is America? Zachary Shore tackles this
polarizing question by spotlighting some of the most morally
muddled matters of WWII. Should Japanese Americans be moved from
the west coast to prevent sabotage? Should the German people be
made to starve as punishment for launching the war? Should America
drop atomic bombs to break Japan's will to fight? Surprisingly,
despite wartime anger, most Americans and key officials favored
mercy over revenge, yet a minority managed to push their punitive
policies through. After the war, by feeding the hungry, rebuilding
Western Europe and Japan, and airlifting supplies to a blockaded
Berlin, America strove to restore the country's humanity,
transforming its image in the eyes of the world. A compelling story
of the struggle over racism and revenge, This Is Not Who We Are
asks crucial questions about the nation's most agonizing divides.
In times that feel apocalyptic, where do we place our hope? It's an
apocalyptic moment. The grim effects of climate change have left
many people in despair. Young people often cite climate fears as a
reason they are not having children. Then there's the threat of
nuclear war, again in the cards, which could make climate worries a
moot point. The paradoxical answer ancient Judaism gave to such
despair was a promise: the promise of doomsday, the "Day of the
Lord" when God will visit his people and establish lasting justice
and peace. Judgment, according to the Hebrew prophets, will be
followed by renewal - for the faithful, and perhaps even for the
entire cosmos. Over the centuries since, this hopeful vision of
apocalypse has carried many others through moments of crisis and
catastrophe. Might it do the same for us? On this theme: creation
is transformed and made new. That's what the "end of the age" meant
to Jesus and his early - Peter J. Leithart says when old worlds
die, we need something sturdier than the myth of progress. -
Brandon McGinley says you can't protect your kids from tragedy. -
Cardinal Peter Turkson points to the spiritual roots of the climate
crisis. - David Bentley Hart says disruption, not dogma, is
Christianity's grounds for hope. - Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz
reminds us that the Book of Revelation ends well. - Lyman Stone
argues that those who claim that having children threatens the
environment are wrong. - Eleanor Parker recounts how, amid Viking
terror, one Anglo-Saxon bishop held a kingdom together. - Shira
Telushkin describes how artist Wassily Kandinsky forged a path from
the material to the spiritual. - Anika T. Prather learned to let
her children grieve during the pandemic. Also in the issue: -
Ukrainian pastor Ivan Rusyn describes ministering in wartime Bucha
and Kyiv. - Mindy Belz reports on farmers who held out in Syria
despite ISIS. - New poems by winners of the 2022 Rhina Espaillat
Poetry Award - A profile of newly sainted Charles de Foucauld -
Reviews of Elena Ferrante's In the Margins, Abigail Favale's The
Genesis of Gender, and Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility -
Readers' forum, comics, and more Plough Quarterly features stories,
ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the
challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles,
interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.
When an earthquake hits a war zone or cyclone aid is flown in by an
enemy, many ask: Can catastrophe bring peace? Disaster prevention
and mitigation provide similar questions. Could setting up a flood
warning system bring enemy countries together? Could a regional
earthquake building code set the groundwork for wider regional
cooperation? This book examines how and why disaster-related
activities do and do not create peace and reduce conflict.
Disaster-related activities refer to actions before a disaster such
as prevention and mitigation along with actions after a disaster
such as emergency response, humanitarian relief, and
reconstruction. This volume investigates disaster diplomacy case
studies from around the world, in a variety of political and
disaster circumstances, from earthquakes in Greece and Turkey
affecting these neighbours' bilateral relations to volcanoes and
typhoons influencing intra-state conflict in the Philippines.
Dictatorships are amongst the case studies, such as Cuba and Burma,
along with democracies such as the USA and India. No evidence is
found to suggest that disaster diplomacy is a prominent factor in
conflict resolution. Instead, disaster-related activities often
influence peace processes in the short-term-over weeks and
months-provided that a non-disaster-related basis already existed
for the reconciliation. That could be secret negotiations between
the warring parties or strong trade or cultural links. Over the
long-term, disaster-related influences disappear, succumbing to
factors such as a leadership change, the usual patterns of
political enmity, or belief that an historical grievance should
take precedence over disaster-related bonds. This is the first book
on disaster diplomacy. Disaster-politics interactions have been
studied for decades, but usually from a specific political framing,
covering a specific geographical area, or from a specific disaster
framing. As well, plenty of quantitative work has been completed,
yet the data limitations are rarely admitted openly or thoroughly
analysed. Few publications bring together the topics of disasters
and politics in terms of a disaster diplomacy framework, yielding a
grounded, qualitative, scientific point of view on the topic.
The Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Disasters provides the
first comprehensive review of the role played by international
human rights law in the prevention and management of natural and
technological disasters. Each chapter is written by a leading
expert and offers a state-of-the-art overview of a significant
topic within the field. In addition to focussing on the role of
human rights obligations in disaster preparedness and response, the
volume offers a broader perspective by examining how human rights
law interacts with other legal regimes and by addressing the
challenges facing humanitarian organizations. Preceded by a
foreword by the International Law Commission's Special Rapporteur
on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, the volume
is divided into four parts: Part I: Human rights law and disasters
in the framework of public international law Part II: Role and
application of human rights law in disaster settings Part III:
(Categories of) rights of particular significance in a disaster
context Part IV: Protection of vulnerable groups in disaster
settings Providing up-to-date and authoritative contributions
covering the key aspects of human rights protection in disaster
settings, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and
students of humanitarianism, international law, EU law, disaster
management and international relations, as well as to practitioners
in the field of disaster management.
An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit
("the voice of the resistance"-New York Times), climate activist
Thelma Young Lutunatabua, and a chorus of voices calling on us to
rise to the moment. Not Too Late is the book for anyone who is
despondent, anxious, or unsure about climate change and seeking
answers. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the future
will be decided by whether we act in the present-and we must act to
counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political
obduracy. These dispatches from the climate movement around the
world feature the voices of organizers like Guam-based lawyer and
writer Julian Aguon; climate scientists like Dr. Jacquelyn Gill and
Dr. Edward Carr; poets like Marshall Islands activist Kathy
Jetnil-Kijner; and longtime organizers like The Tyranny of Oil
author Antonia Juhasz and Emergent Strategy author adrienne maree
brown. Guided by Rebecca Solnit's typical clear-eyed wisdom and
enriched by illustrations, Not Too Late leads readers from
discouragement to possibilities, from climate despair to climate
hope. Contributors include Julian Aguon, Jade Begay, adrienne maree
brown, Edward Carr, Renato Redantor Constantino, Joelle Gergis,
Jacquelyn Gill, Mary Annaise Heglar, Mary Ann Hitt, Roshi Joan
Halifax, Nikayla Jefferson, Antonia Juhasz, Kathy Jetnil Kijiner,
Fenton Lutunatabua & Joseph `Sikulu, Yotam Marom, Denali
Nalamalapu, Leah Stokes, Farhana Sultana, and Gloria Walton.
Disaster Risk Governance offers the first extensive engagement with
disaster risk governance in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the last decade and a half Kenya, Jamaica, Dominica, and
Zanzibar have all suffered massive destruction from disasters
caused by natural hazards. Despite the tremendous investments in
disaster risk reduction (DRR), disasters have wiped out the
developmental gains of these countries. In this book, Denise
Thompson argues that disaster risk governance (DRG) as a practical
and academic matter has not been given the attention it deserves,
and as a result, this neglect has undermined the time, money and
resources invested in DRR in developing countries since the late
1970s and early 1980s. Thompson proposes that properly
conceptualizing DRG based on context will help to address some of
the deficiencies. Consequently, DRG needs to become a central
focus, particularly for developing countries. Written with
real-life implications for developing countries, Disaster Risk
Governance is perfectly suited for practitioners and researchers in
area studies, disaster risk reduction and disaster governance, as
well as students of disaster studies.
Bringing together the voices of local scholars in the Philippines,
this book offers critical insights into one of the world's most
disaster-prone regions. The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most
vulnerable regions in the world, with the effects of climate change
contributing to rising sea levels and increasingly frequent
typhoons and floods. Case studies in this book examine such
disasters, including the aftermath of 2013 super typhoon Haiyan.
Discussions are centred around four themes: women and empowerment,
economics and recovery, community and resilience, and religion and
spirituality. Through its analysis, the book demonstrates the
scopes, inequities and inefficiencies of policies and responses, as
well as forms of empowerment and resilience, in meeting challenges
in disaster-afflicted communities in the Philippines. Its
conclusions provide a more nuanced and grounded perspective of
policies, practices and approaches in the sociology of disasters
today.
Earthquakes come without warming, and often cause massive
devastation, resulting not only in the loss of property but also of
lives. Many of the survivors suffer from intense and lasting
psychological trauma. This book covers the experience of recent
earthquakes in India, and what has been learnt (and what we have
failed to learn) in the process of
The spate of disaster events ranging from major to catastrophic
that have occurred in recent years raises a lot of questions about
where and why they happened. Understanding the history of emergency
management policies and practice is important to an understanding
of current and future policies and practice. Continuing in the
footsteps of its popular predecessors, the new edition of Emergency
Management: The American Experience provides the background to
understand the key political and policy underpinnings of emergency
management, exploring how major "focusing events" have shaped the
field of emergency management. This edition builds on the original
theoretical framework and chronological approach of previous
editions, while enhancing the discussions through the addition of
fresh information about the effects and outcomes of older events,
such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The final chapters
offer insightful discussion of the public administration concepts
of emergency management in the U.S. and of the evolving federal
role in emergency management. Like its predecessors, the third
edition of Emergency Management is a trusted and required text to
understand the formation and continuing improvement of the American
national emergency management system.
When disaster strikes, our instinctive response is to make things
better, not only as individuals but also as groups, organisations,
communities and major institutions within society. With increasing
climate-related disasters and the potential for future global
pandemics, philanthropy will continue to play an essential role.
Yet our knowledge of how philanthropic responses to disasters are
motivated, organised and received is fragmented. This book is a
step toward curating our existing knowledge in the emerging field
of 'disaster philanthropy' and to building a robust base for future
research, practice and public policy. The authors highlight
unknowns and ambiguities, extensions and unexplored spaces, and
challenges and paradoxes. Above all, they recognise that
philanthropic responses to disasters are complex, conditional and
subject to change.
'This book will stay with me for years.' - Adam Kay, author of This
Is Going to Hurt What happens to pregnant women when a humanitarian
catastrophe strikes? Belly Woman shines a light on a story often
left untold. May, 2014. Sierra Leone is ranked the country with the
highest death rate of pregnant women in the world. The same month,
Ebola crosses in from neighbouring Guinea. Arriving a few weeks
later, Dr Benjamin Black finds himself at the centre of an
exponential Ebola outbreak. From impossible decisions on the
maternity ward to moral dilemmas at the Ebola Treatment Centres.
One mistake, one error of judgment, could spell disaster. An
eye-opening work of reportage and advocacy, Belly Woman chronicles
the inside journey through an unfolding global health crisis and
the struggle to save the lives of young mothers. As Black reckons
with the demons of the past, he must try to learn the lessons for a
different, more resilient, future. 'A must-read for our times -
riveting, illuminating and humbling.' - Aminatta Forna, author of
The Memory of Love and The Devil That Danced on the Water
This book is a revision of the author's original doctoral thesis on
emergency preparedness through community radio in North Indian
villages into a widening array of possible reapplications in other
community development fields. The author expands on the process of
transforming emergency preparedness education through community
media in rural North India and applies this to the development of
community-prosperity, defined simply as human and planetary
well-being, anywhere in the world. A new theoretical framework is
presented which combines the pivotal Integral Worlds Approach
developed by Lessem and Schieffer with Critical Theory, thus
exploring a new way to envision and implement social change,
leading to innovation and social transformation. This book
introduces the term "constructive resilience," which is a type of
community-building that occurs alongside dominant societal
structures that are either oppressive or ineffective. An evolving
field of study and practice, it is emerging from the work of
academics and community-builders who are members of the Baha'i
Faith. Baha'i "consultation," a process of inquiry and
decision-making, is offered as a systematic and effective method of
defining problems and enacting solutions and is examined in the
context of emergency preparedness education and local
capacity-building. With its integral development approach, its
unique combination of themes and theoretical components, and
integration with the Baha'i Faith, as well as its interdisciplinary
nature, this book will be invaluable reading for researchers in
many fields. It will be of particular interest in university-based
training programs in disaster management and the various
disciplines of international community development, as well as
practitioners in the areas of micro enterprise, disaster
management, community development, rural communications, rural
economics and emergency preparedness education.
Household vulnerability to weather shocks and changing climatic
conditions has become a major concern in developing countries. Yet
the empirical evidence remains limited on the impact that changing
environmental conditions have on households. This book explores
climate change adaptation using a social resilience approach. The
book is based on primary data from the Sundarbans, a densely
populated area located across parts of Bangladesh and India (West
Bengal) which is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and
climate change. The focus is on assessing how households are
affected by cyclones: whether they are able to cope with, adapt to
and recover from events and changes; whether they are warned ahead
of time; whether they benefit from government safety nets and other
social programs; and finally whether they are driven to either
temporary or permanent migration. This assessment leads to a better
understanding of how exposure to an area of climate change
vulnerability and risk affects and shapes human responses.
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.
This first full-length book addresses disasters in the context of
vulnerability of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that comprise 572
islands in the Bay of Bengal. It looks at the disasters that the
islands have experienced in the last 200 years and analyzes major
disasters since colonization by the British. Raising some critical
questions, this book attempts to understand the overall profile of
disasters - the facts, causes, damage, response and recovery - in
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It discusses earthquakes,
cyclones, tsunami and epidemics, as well as impacts of World War
II, the penal colony and the post-Independence resettlement on the
tribal population. The work will serve as a rich resource with its
detailed tables, figures, maps and diagrams; appendices; and
database ranging from travelogues, Census of India reports and
fieldwork to Right to Information (RTI) petitions that collect
hitherto unknown facts. The book will be useful to students of
geography, disasters and disasters management, climate and
environmental studies, history, sociology, island and ocean
studies, and South Asian studies.
China suffers frequently from many types of natural disasters,
which have affected the lives of many millions of Chinese. The
steps which the Chinese state has taken to prevent disasters,
mitigate their consequences, and reconstruct in the aftermath of
disasters are therefore key issues. This book examines the single
metropolis of Tianjin in northern China, a city which has suffered
particularly badly from natural disasters - the great famine of
1958-61, the great flood of 1963 and the great earthquake of 1976.
It discusses how the city managed these disasters, what policies
and measures were taken to prevent and mitigate disasters, and to
promote reconstruction afterwards. It also explores who suffered
from and who benefited from the disasters. Overall, the book shows
how disaster management was erratic, sometimes managed highly
efficiently and in other cases disappointingly delayed and inept.
It concludes that, although the Maoist state possessed formidable
resources, disaster management was always constrained by other
political and economic considerations, and was never an automatic
priority.
A UN report recently found that the Asia Pacific is the world's
most disaster-prone region. Indeed, considering that the region
accounts for more than half of the total number of disasters in the
world, building capacity and resilience to mitigate the devastating
impact of disasters is a pressing task for local actors. This book
takes a regional, multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach to
improve understandings of how various actors respond to natural and
human-induced disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. It examines the
ideas and activities of four different categories of agents: civil
society; military and state institutions; local cultural knowledge
and the media; and economic initiatives, and these themes are
approached from various academic disciplines, ranging from
anthropology and cultural studies to economics, human geography and
political science. The contributors draw their findings from a
variety of countries in the region, including China, Fiji, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar and Samoa, and importantly, focus on the
interconnection between vulnerability and resilience. In turn, the
book highlights how the nature and magnitude of disasters are
influenced by social conditions, and aims to contribute to policies
that prioritize development opportunities to enhance resilience.
Further, it explores the complicated and multifaceted role of
agency in building resilience, and presents a comparative framework
for analysis and key findings from the Asia-Pacific region. The
focus of this book on recent and ongoing disasters makes it a
topical and timely contribution to the growing field of disaster
management, and as such it will appeal to students and scholars of
environmental studies, development studies and Asian politics.
Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on
strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth
accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a
much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area. This book is
is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster
research from a range of different, but often complementary
academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to
disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline;
ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to
disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological
and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to
disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are
examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to
disaster research. The book thus provides unique insights into
fourteen state-of-the-art disciplinary approaches to the
understanding of disasters. The theoretical discussions as well as
the diverse range of disaster cases should be of interest to both
postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics,
researchers and policymakers.
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