Disaster Prevention and Management最新文献

Purpose

Applying the wicked problems framework to disaster risk reduction makes for a more appropriate understanding of the modern challenges of mitigation that may inform better strategies and communications.

Design/methodology/approach

This research employs a literature review of wicked problems to posit a theoretical application of the concept to disaster risk reduction in the format of a reflective examination and argument with reasoned lessons for policy and governance.

Findings

There is a broad body of research that informs the application of the wicked problems framework to improve disaster risk reduction. Understanding the value of rationality, complexity, clumsy solutions, and inter-disciplinary approaches for risk scenarios helps to frame and communicate a realistic perspective of disaster risk reduction objectives.

Practical implications

Recognizing the various modes of response to the wicked problem of disaster risk reduction can help construct more comprehensive, inclusive, and effective approaches for continuous improvement.

Social implications

Understanding disaster risk as a wicked problem broadens the base for mitigation efforts by promoting more inclusion and perspectives from all segments of society.

Originality/value

Wicked problems have been loosely referenced in disaster management research, but there is a lack of theoretical foundation for the concept applied to disaster risk reduction and extension into practical policy.

Purpose

After the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), the need for disaster case management (DCM) was highlighted through the efforts of the Sendai Bar Association, which investigated the situation of survivors. This paper provides an overview of DCM in Japan since the GEJE, including key findings from investigations and legal consultations conducted by the Sendai Bar Association and the first author, who took part in the surveys with survivors in Ishinomaki City, clarifying the large number of homebound survivors and their needs.

Design/methodology/approach

In recent years there has been growing attention to the importance of DCM for supporting life and housing recovery of disaster survivors. Along with the expansion of DCM activities over several decades in Japan, the need for DCM was increasingly recognized after the 2011 GEJE and tsunami, especially for home-based survivors left out of government-provided disaster recovery support programs. As one-on-one advice to support individual recovery needs, the focus of DCM in Japan is legal advice to help survivors effectively navigate support policies.

Findings

Since the GEJE, there has been growing support for DCM in Japan, including from practitioners, scholars, and regional and national governments. However, although DCM can be an effective way to support housing recovery, even 12 years after the GEJE, there are still survivors in need of additional support.

Originality/value

Drawing on a detailed case study and action research of the first author, this paper contributes to the still limited international literature on DCM in Japan.

Purpose

Disaster research is often geared towards logocentrism and has relatively few outputs that explore alternative forms of representation, particularly those using an artistic medium. This paper explores how the creative use of audio representation can enhance understanding of flooding experiences, challenging the predominant text-based approach within qualitative study.

Design/methodology/approach

During a series of visits to people who had been flooded in 2019 in the UK, interviews and ambient sounds were recorded, analysed and then intertwined with musical elements composed by the lead author. The result is a phonographic representation of the synthesised data. The process explores a tripartite, creative, sonic approach that comingles thematic spoken excerpts with local sounds and musical compositions.

Findings

This article presents three sonic vignettes that illustrate the use of audio as a medium for academic research outputs. It contributes to the current consensus that the interpretation, representation and dissemination of research findings should be broadened beyond the dominance of the written word to align with the ethos of the Disaster Studies Manifesto.

Research limitations/implications

The research contributes to disaster scholarship by developing a transdisciplinary approach to explore people’s experiences. By retaining the participants’ voices at its core, it makes use of in-depth, rich data to illustrate individuality, rather than aiming to generalise.

Originality/value

Very little disaster research has focussed on pushing the boundaries of investigation by using the arts as a lens for both the researcher and their audience. Such work may connect with a wider range of people compared to a text-based “traditional” academic output. It can offer new opportunities for practical uses within Disaster Risk Reduction, for example as a communicative and educational tool.

Contribution to impact

This paper contributes to understanding the impact of developing audio representation as a medium for conveying people’s experiences of flooded homes.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the current discourse on researcher positionality in disaster research and it aims to enhance disaster researchers’ reflexivity, using Bourdieu’s capital, field and habitus theories.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper relies on secondary literature from empirical and theoretical works and incorporates critical self-reflection from author’s own research experience.

Findings

As Bourdieu would argue, one’s habitus is interactive and responsive to contexts (field and other agents’ habitus and capital), thus reflexivity requires more than the acknowledgement of one’s ascribed and achieved social characteristics. Bourdieu’s theories help disaster researchers enhance their reflexivity and better understand the nature of researcher positionality: contextual, dynamic and negotiated.

Originality/value

This research provides a critical and theoretical discussion of researcher positionality in disaster research. Drawing from Bourdieu’s theories, researcher positionality can be framed in relation to not only researcher’s structurally differentiated insider–outsider status but also how interactions with the research participants and contexts in which the research is conducted influence that positionality.

Purpose

Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks in their own way, we know very little about their activities, motivations and effective impact on risk reduction. Here we seek to conceptualize bottom-up initiatives to better grasp their origins, limitations and success.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a four-year action-research project in Colombia, Cuba and Chile, we theorize about the production of change by local agents. Through detailed case studies we explored the activism of 17 local leaders. Through narrative analysis we studied their motivations and explanations. Finally, by documenting 22 initiatives, we revealed effective changes in space.

Findings

In the face of risk and disasters, residents and leaders in informal settings engaged in symbolic, physical and social spaces of interaction. Their actions were guided by trust, emotions, time cycles and activism. Local agency was justified by narratives about risk and climate change that differ from those of authorities and scholars.

Research limitations/implications

There is still limited understanding of bottom-up initiatives in informal settings. It is crucial to conceptualize their origins, limitations and success. The focus on three specific countries necessitates further research for broader applicability and understanding.

Practical implications

A better comprehension of bottom-up actions is crucial for informing policies and programmes aimed at reducing risk in informal settings. Stakeholders must recognize the political, social and cultural roles of these actions for more impactful climate action.

Originality/value

We borrow Simon’s concept of “artefact” to introduce the notion of “Artefacts of Disaster Risk Reduction”, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of bottom-up initiatives. We also emphasize the simultaneous political and phenomenological character of these actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of their origins and impact.

Purpose

To critically assess the reconstruction process's outcomes four months after a wildfire disaster in Viña del Mar, Chile, comparing the governmental reconstruction plan and the actual rebuilding efforts by the dwellers.

Design/methodology/approach

A geographic information system (GIS)-based analysis to deliver a spatial-based comparison of (1) the cadastre of damaged dwellings; (2) the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism’s (MINVU) reconstruction plan and (3) the actual reconstruction that has been carried out by the dwellers themselves up to November 2023 (as surveyed through fieldwork and drone flights).

Findings

Around 307 dwellings (97.7% of the 314 examined households) had been rebuilt by November 2023, all through the dwellers’ self-reconstruction efforts, except for two houses delivered by MINVU. Around 105 of these dwellings (34.2%) were granted a reconstruction subsidy by MINVU, while 155 (49.4% of the sample of 314 dwellings) were rebuilt without this aid. Also, 47 houses were rebuilt by dwellers in areas deemed “non-rebuildable” due to their high-risk levels.

Originality/value

We use a mixed-methods approach to examine disruptions between planned reconstruction and actual rebuilding processes following a wildfire disaster in areas with significant informality.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the potential of serious gaming as an imaginative and creative method to collect data in disaster studies that address key concerns such as extractive research, power inequalities, and bridging the theory-practice gap in exploring post-disaster recovery.

Design/methodology/approach

Novel serious gaming approach deployed to connect theory-practice by identifying and co-analysing post-disaster recovery gaps in a workshop setting.

Findings

The serious game has value in bridging theory-practice divides, identifying and exploring gaps/solutions in post-flood recovery, and serving as a novel social science research approach for disaster studies.

Practical implications

Outlining a dialogic approach to knowledge construction between academics, practitioners, policymakers and community voices on post-disaster recovery.

Social implications

Fostering collaboration and knowledge construction on post-disaster recovery gaps across stakeholders is valuable in improving disaster resilience strategies that benefit communities affected by disasters.

Originality/value

The paper proposes a creative and co-developed serious game method of data collection for disaster studies.

Purpose

This article focuses on the representations of natural hazards, disasters, gender roles and norms in Makoto Shinkai’s disaster-themed anime films Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019).

Design/methodology/approach

This article commences with a literature review on disasters, disaster films, gender in disasters and gender in disaster films; then, this article thoroughly investigates the portrayal of disasters and gender in the two films, drawing data from their narratives and plots.

Findings

This article finds that the two films’ depictions of disasters and gender adhere to the traditional patterns observed in Hollywood and Japanese disaster films. The natural hazards and disasters in the two films reflect real-world disasters that occurred in Japan’s recent decades, especially the 3.11 Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Traditional gender figures and prevalent heterosexual expectations in Japanese culture and society deeply influence the two films’ portrayal of gender roles and norms.

Originality/value

Numerous academic works explored Hollywood disaster films, their representations of gender roles and norms in disaster themes. However, few focus on recent Japanese anime films such as Your Name and Weathering with You. This article aims to fill this gap.

Purpose

Environmental disasters are preventable, but this remains a complicated and elusive prospect. This article discusses factors that combine to limit and undermine environmental disaster prevention efforts and explores directions for improved theory and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The challenge of integrating root cause analysis of environmental disasters with interventions and preventive measures at later stages of disaster incubation is outlined. The prospect of learning and transferring lessons from past environmental disasters is discussed. Eighteen environmental disaster cases are summarized and analyzed.

Findings

A range of factors, including complexity, lack of lesson transfer, perceived lack of incentives and inaction, limits advances in environmental disaster prevention. Theoretical challenges involve better bridging of root cause and incubation analyses, enhanced understanding of the nature and discipline of foresight and greater documentation of alternative approaches to prevention, including post–normal techniques. Although a transformative breakthrough in environmental disaster prevention is unlikely, substantial progress could be made through better lesson transfer and application of alternative approaches.

Originality/value

This article draws attention to problems and opportunities surrounding the challenge of environmental disaster prevention and proposes directions for improved theory and practice.