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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Social impact of disasters
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.
Al Qaeda detonates a nuclear weapon in Times Square during rush hour, wiping out half of Manhattan and killing 500,000 people. A virulent strain of bird flu jumps to humans in Thailand, sweeps across Asia, and claims more than fifty million lives. A single freight car of chlorine derails on the outskirts of Los Angeles, spilling its contents and killing seven million. An asteroid ten kilometers wide slams into the Atlantic Ocean, unleashing a tsunami that renders life on the planet as we know it extinct. We consider the few who live in fear of such scenarios to be alarmist or even paranoid. But Worst Cases shows that such individuals-like Cassandra foreseeing the fall of Troy-are more reasonable and prescient than you might think. In this book, Lee Clarke surveys the full range of possible catastrophes that animate and dominate the popular imagination, from toxic spills and terrorism to plane crashes and pandemics. Along the way, he explores how the ubiquity of worst cases in everyday life has rendered them ordinary and mundane. Fear and dread, Clarke argues, have actually become too rare: only when the public has more substantial information and more credible warnings will it take worst cases as seriously as it should. A timely and necessary look into how we think about the unthinkable, Worst Cases will be must reading for anyone attuned to our current climate of threat and fear.
This comparative study at hand has been the result of a two-year research project on floods in 2014 in the Western Balkans engaging eight research teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. Representing quite different disciplines, the authors of this volume have analysed diverse aspects of the crisis governance and its ramifications. This publication's goals are twofold. Firstly, it pins down the characteristics of the crisis responses during the floods of 2014 in three affected countries, preconditioned by the existing institutions, crisis leadership, the role of media and the social capital as well as the foreign financial aid. On the other hand, through the lenses of the crisis governance we conclude on the state capacities and the nature of political regime of the cases under study. The flood megacrisis did not constitute a "window of opportunity" for individual or institutional learning. On the contrary, it did unveil some authoritarian tendencies in Serbia and Bosnia, and thus stalled the hitherto ongoing democratization process.
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.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 FINALIST FOR THE BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE 2022 FINALIST FOR THE URSULA LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 WATERSTONES AND ESQUIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 'Haunting and luminous ... An astonishing debut' - Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta 'A powerfully moving and thought provoking read. At times sublime, strange and deeply human' Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling author of the Children of Time series Siberia, 2031. After a virus, unearthed from melting permafrost, unleashes a deadly plague upon humanity, those left alive are forced to adapt to a new world, and do so in myriad moving and inventive ways. Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects - a pig - develops human speech; and a widowed painter and her teenage granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. A story of unshakeable hope that seamlessly crosses literary lines, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humankind endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible. [How High We Go in the Dark] reaches far beyond our stars while its heart remains rooted to Earth, and reminds us that our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of our world - Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree
Billionaires, Boris Johnson, big tech monopolies, raging inequality, Russian oligarchs, cancel culture, superyachts, spaceships to Mars, Twitter wars, a potentially devastating global inflation crisis… These may seem like entirely disparate issues, but they are all connected. Not for many generations has the world been brimming with this level of uncertainty, whether it’s a virus scouring the planet, the threat of nuclear war in Europe or the unravelling of political lies in yet another government scandal. The Age of Menace pulls these apparently disconnected strands together, illuminating the driving forces that have led us to this unique and chaotic point in human history. From the authors of critically acclaimed The End of Money comes a book that explains the state of the world today. In the words of Michael Avery, it is ‘essential reading for our times’.
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.
Learn Resilience Through These Survival Stories #1 New Release in Disaster Relief Extreme Survival is the long awaited followup to New York Times best-selling author Michael Tougias's The Finest Hours. This thriller will have you mentally on the edge-of-your-seat as you read these true survival stories and learn useful survival techniques! Explore the stories and the causes of manmade disasters. To answer the question of why disasters happen and how some survive, Tougias interviewed over 100 people who survived against all odds, first chronicling their harrowing survival stories, and then discussing in detail the lessons learned. Both an exciting and informative read, this book provides the entertainment and exceptional research fans expect. Learn resilience through the mindset of a survivor. Tougias shares what a person is capable of when under pressure and facing different types of disasters. Surviving disasters requires extreme survival techniques to kick in at just the right time! All of Michael Tougias books have a level of deep survival laced within the pages. Learn how to rise against the odds in your personal and professional life. Inside, you'll find: Captivating and narrative survival stories told in true Tougias' trademark style Analysis of major man-made disasters and the faulty decisions that led to them First-person accounts and detailed survival tactics that can be utilized in your day-to-day life If you like non-fiction survival books like The Gift of Fear, Deep Survival, or If I Live Until Morning, you'll love Extreme Survival.
The death by famine of tens of millions of human beings in Asia and Africa during the Victorian era (1837-1901) is "the secret history of the nineteenth century" about which Western history books contain nothing. The Great Famine of 1869-1873 in Iran took 10-12 million lives, or two-thirds of the population, and is part of this secret history. While the famines that ravaged China and India during 1876 to 1902 have received some recent scrutiny, the precursor of these cataclysmic famines, the Great Famine of 1869-1873 in Iran, has remained practically unknown. This study is the first monograph on the subject in the English language. This famine in Iran killed on a scale similar to the 1876-79 famine in China, which has been called the worst to afflict the human species. This study is based on British diplomatic reports and semi-official sources, European travel accounts, Persian documents and writings, British and American newspapers, and the reports by American missionaries who witnessed the famine. These sources enable one to provide a chronological and numerical account of the death and suffering as the famine spread from the southern and central regions to the rest of the country. The population statistics and rich micro-level data on famine losses in rural and urban areas indicate that during the nearly five years of famine, two-thirds of the population had perished. Not until 1910 did Iran come close to recovering its 1869 population. Soon after, Iran was plunged into the Great Famine of 1917-19, which claimed another 8-10 million, and again the 1942-43 famine and typhus epidemic that carried off an additional 4 million persons. In the seventy-five year span of 1869-1944, Iran had suffered three famines that had taken 25 million lives. Iran's 1944 population of 10-12 million was unchanged from 11 million recorded in 1841, a perfect case of a Malthusian catastrophe. It is difficult to find another country in which a century of population growth had been wiped out by famine. Having previously described and quantified the 1917-19 and 1942-43 famines, Majd does the same for the 1869-73 famine. This book is the third of a trilogy on famines in Iran during the last 150 years.
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.
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.
This volume places the Flint, Michigan, water contamination disaster in the context of a broader crisis created by neoliberal governance in the United States. Authors from a range of disciplines (including sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, communications, and jurisprudence) examine the failures in Flint, with an emphasis on comparison. Their analysis calls attention to similar trajectories for cities like Detroit and Pontiac, in Michigan, and Stockton, in California. While the studies collected here emphasize policy failures, class conflict, and racial oppression, they also attend to the resistance undertaken by Flint residents, Michiganders, and U.S. activists, as they fought for environmental and social justice. Contributors include: Terressa A. Benz, Jon Carroll, Graham Cassano, Daniel J. Clark, Katrinell M. Davis, Michael Doan, David Fasenfest, A.E. Garrison, Peter J. Hammer, Ami Harbin, Shea Howell, Jacob Lederman, Raoul S. Lievanos, Benjamin J. Pauli, and Julie Sze.
A deeply reported account of life inside Burma in the months
following the disastrous Cyclone Nargis and an analysis of the
brutal totalitarian regime that clings to power in the devastated
nation.
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.
Japan's March 11, 2011 triple horror of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown is its worst catastrophe since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recovery remains an ongoing ordeal. Japan's Responses to the March 2011 Disaster: Our Inescapable In-between uncovers the pivotal role of longstanding cultural worldviews and their impact on responses to this gut-wrenching disaster. Through unpacking the pivotal notion in Japanese ethics of aidagara, or "in-betweenness," it offers testament to a deep-rooted sense of community. Accounts from survivors, victims' families, key city officials, and volunteers reveal a remarkable fiber of moral grit and resilience that sustains Japan's common struggle to rally and carve a future with promise and hope. Calamities snatch us out of the mundane and throw us into the intensity of the moment. They challenge our moral fiber. Trauma, individual and collective, is the uninvited litmus test of character, personal and social. Ultimately, whether a society rightfully recovers from disaster has to do with its degree of connectedness, the embodied physical, interpersonal, face-to-face engagement we have with each other. As these stories bring to light, along with Michael Brannigan's extensive research, personal encounters with survivors, and experience as a volunteer in Japan's stricken areas, our degree of connectedness determines how we in the long run weather the storm, whether the storm is natural, technological, or human. Ultimately, it illustrates that how we respond to and recover after the storm hinges upon how we are with each other before the storm.
Rossi develops a theory of the roles of "action" (social actor) and "structure" (sociopolitical resources, cultural resources, and economic resources) in disaster studies, using the data on community reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Southern Italy as a preliminary test of the theory. The focus of the study is not the response during the emergency period which immediately followed the earthquake, but the long-term recovery and reconstruction of the 44 communities which were officially classified as the most heavily damaged. Aspects of the post-earthquake industrialization of the region are also considered, since the physical reconstruction of the destroyed communities is inevitably connected with their socioeconomic development. Rossi outlines and tests a new framework which permits prediction of the different speeds of community reconstruction, and provides a dialectic theory of the interrelationship between structural and action principles of social action.
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, outsiders will have two versions of the Katrina experience. One version will be the images they recall from news coverage of the aftermath. The other will be the intimate portrayal of the determination of New Orleans residents to rebuild and recover their lives. HBO's Treme offers outsiders an inside look into why New Orleanians refused to abandon a place that many questioned should not be rebuilt after the levees failed. This critically acclaimed series expanded the boundaries of television making in its format, plot, casting, use of music, and realism-in-fictionalized-TV. However, Treme is not just a story for the outside gaze on New Orleans. It was a very local, collaborative experience where the show's creators sought to enlist the city in a commemorative project. Treme allowed many in the city who worked as principals, extras, and who tuned in as avid viewers to heal from the devastation of the disaster as they experimented with art, imitating life, imitating art. This book examines the impact of HBOs Treme not just as television making, but in the sense in which television provides a window to our worlds. The book pulls together scholarship in media, communications, gender, area studies, political economy, critical studies, African American studies and music to explain why Treme was not just about television.
The pressure of climate change, environmental degradation, and urbanisation, as well as the widening of socio- economic disparities have rendered the global population increasingly vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. With a primary focus on medical and public health humanitarian response to disasters, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters provides a timely critical analysis of public health responses to natural disasters. Using a number of case studies and examples of innovative disaster response measures developed by international agencies and stakeholders, this book illustrates how theoretical understanding of public health issues can be practically applied in the context of humanitarian relief response. Starting with an introduction to public health principles within the context of medical and public health disaster and humanitarian response, the book goes on to explore key trends, threats and challenges in contemporary disaster medical response. This book provides a comprehensive overview of an emergent discipline and offers a unique multidisciplinary perspective across a range of relevant topics including the concepts of disaster preparedness and resilience, and key challenges in human health needs for the twenty-first century. This book will be of interest to students of public health, disaster and emergency medicine and development studies, as well as to development and medical practitioners working within NGOs, development agencies, health authorities and public administration.
U.S. congressional debates over the last few years have highlighted a paradox: although research demonstrates that emergencies are most effectively managed at the local level, fiscal support and programmatic management in response to disasters has shifted to the federal level. While the growing complexity of catastrophes may overwhelm local capacities and would seem to necessitate more federal engagement, can a federal approach be sustainable, and can it contribute to local capacity-building? This timely book examines local capacity-building as well as the current legal, policy and fiscal framework for disaster management, questioning some of the fundamentals of the current system, exploring whether accountability and responsibilities are correctly placed, offering alternative models, and taking stock of the current practices that reflect an effective use of resources in a complex emergency management system. The Future of Disaster Management in the U.S. will be of interest to disaster and emergency managers as well as public servants and policy-makers at all levels tasked with responding to increasingly complex catastrophes of all kinds.
An Introduction to Emergency Exercise Design and Evaluation is designed to help practitioners and students of emergency management understand various aspects of the exercise design process. Emergency exercises are an important component of an organization's emergency planning and preparedness, yet few emergency managers and practitioners have training in designing or evaluating them. In this updated and practical handbook, author Robert McCreight explains the essential elements and core principles of exercise design and evaluation. This book focuses on natural disasters and technological emergencies that occur in communities of any size. It provides emergency planners, public health professionals, emergency managers, police officers, and fire fighters with an in-depth look at exercise design issues and an accessible guide to designing and evaluating emergency exercises.
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.
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.
Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast in 2005, leaving an unparalleled trail of physical destruction. In addition to that damage, the storm wrought massive psychological and cultural trauma on Gulf Coast residents and on America as a whole. Details of the devastation were quickly reported-and misreported-by media outlets, and a slew of articles and books followed, offering a spectrum of socio-political commentaries and analyses. But beyond the reportage and the commentary, a series of fictional and creative accounts of the Katrina-experience have emerged in various mediums: novels, plays, films, television shows, songs, graphic novels, collections of photographs, and works of creative non-fiction that blur the lines between reportage, memoir, and poetry. The creative outpouring brings to mind Salman Rushdie's observation that, "Man is the storytelling animal, the only creature on earth that tells itself stories to understand what kind of creature it is." This book accepts the urge behind Rushdie's formula: humans tell stories in order to understand ourselves, our world, and our place in it. Indeed, the creative output on Katrina represents efforts to construct a cohesive narrative out of the wreckage of a cataclysmic event. However, this book goes further than merely cataloguing the ways that Katrina narratives support Rushdie's rich claim. This collection represents a concentrated attempt to chart the effects of Katrina on our cultural identity; it seeks to not merely catalogue the trauma of the event but to explore the ways that such an event functions in and on the literature that represents it. The body of work that sprung out of Katrina offers a unique critical opportunity to better understand the genres that structure our stories and the ways stories reflect and produce culture and identity. These essays raise new questions about the representative genres themselves. The stories are efforts to represent and understand the human condition, but so are the organizing principles that communicate the stories. That is, Katrina-narratives present an opportunity to interrogate the ways that specific narrative structures inform our understanding and develop our cultural identity. This book offers a critical processing of the newly emerging and diverse canon of Katrina texts.
Named after Lapindo Brantas, a gas exploration company that was drilling at the eruption site, the Lapindo mudflow initially burst in 2006 and continues to flow today, becoming the most expensive disaster in Indonesia's history. Using this environmental incident in Indonesia as a case study, this book explores representations of disaster in scientific reports, public discourse, literature, and other cultural forms, observing the impact of these portrayals on the ways people both understand and respond to complicated environmental disasters. The author argues that power is expressed and contested in every representation of a disaster and its stakeholders. This book develops terminologies and perspectives that not only probe the social and ecological conditions that make disaster possible but also foster more effective and equitable strategies for adapting to a world fraught with hazards. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book makes a significant contribution to the fields of green cultural studies, disaster studies, science and technology studies and studies of political ecology in Southeast Asia.
In the examination of gender as a driving force in disasters, too little attention has been paid to how women's or men's disaster experiences relate to the wider context of gender inequality, or how gender-just practice can help prevent disasters or address climate change at a structural level. With a foreword from Kenneth Hewitt, an afterword from Raewyn Connell and contributions from renowned international experts, this book helps address the gap. It explores disasters in diverse environmental, hazard, political and cultural contexts through original research and theoretical reflection, building on the under-utilized orientation of critical men's studies. This body of thought, not previously applied in disaster contexts, explores how men gain, maintain and use power to assert control over women. Contributing authors examine the gender terrain of disasters 'through men's eyes,' considering how diverse forms of masculinities shape men's efforts to respond to and recover from disasters and other climate challenges. The book highlights both the high costs paid by many men in disasters and the consequences of dominant masculinity practices for women and marginalized men. It concludes by examining how disaster risk can be reduced through men's diverse efforts to challenge hierarchies around gender, sexuality, disability, age and culture. |
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