Disasters最新文献

Unexpected and often severe weather has taxed community capacities. Convincing households to prepare by developing emergency plans, keeping necessary supplies, and investing in home upgrades, to name a few, has been a focus of many public campaigns related to extreme weather. Essentially, these programmes are exercises in persuasion. What, then, characterises such a campaign that is likely to be successful in this act of persuasion? Recent work has found that household preparedness may be related to trust in government, as a key emergency information provider, although the evidence is mixed. In this article, we argue that the mixed evidence scholars have found may come from the measurement of trust in government. Our statistical analysis shows that increases in minimum trust in levels of government decreases household preparedness for tornadoes. The finding highlights the importance of augmenting and restoring social trust (in addition to trust in government) to produce better emergency management outcomes in the United States.

How do we understand a disaster? How do we interpret the aftermath of a disaster, anyway? This article draws on my ethnographic fieldwork to understand what constitutes a disaster and how preexisting social conditions shaped events in the wake of Cyclone Aila in South Asia in May 2009. The people who received relief following this disaster engaged in discrimination, something that has become palpable through the frame of disaster. At the same instant, multiple forms of power at different levels materialised; aware of the dynamics of the crisis, actors have strategically used the disaster to strengthen their positions in the name of ‘building back better’. I show how these phenomena are linked with the consequences of disaster. The paper explains how people's attitudes towards the state and vice versa shape patterns of land use and forms of resource extraction, thereby intensifying resource-related hazards in the hinterlands of the Indian Sundarbans.

Over the past 30 years, the relationship between the neighbouring states of Armenia and Türkiye has been greatly influenced by a politicised atmosphere and ongoing debates about their shared history, alongside efforts at reconciliation. It is noteworthy that, in a global context increasingly characterised by both anthropogenic and natural calamities, the phenomenon of (shared) disasters as it pertains to the dynamics of Armenia–Türkiye relations has garnered relatively scant scholarly attention. This study investigates instances of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic on a global scale and the Kahramanmaraş (Türkiye) earthquakes that occurred on 6 February 2023, which serve as disasters possessing diplomatic and symbolic significance that could facilitate a transition from a state of conflict to one of cooperative peace between these two nations. Utilising a disaster diplomacy framework and incorporating data obtained from Armenia and Türkiye, this paper posits that disasters may function as a substantial catalyst in fostering diplomatic conditions and advancing efforts towards rapprochement.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic pinpointed the vulnerability of nations to disasters regardless of their relative level of development. The coordination of their emergency management response organisations was seen as extremely important in not only dealing with the global health emergency, but also with respect to natural hazards and public health threats in the future. Coming to these conclusions and working to enhance a country's coordination of emergency management actors are, however, two very different things. Using El Salvador in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, this research observes the various coordination issues indicative of emergency management organisations and practices in a resource-scarce environment in order to develop recommendations for enhancing coordination during forthcoming events. Through an analysis of public documents and 15 executive-level key informant interviews with government and emergency management officials, coordination challenges are identified and a number of suggestions for policy are provided.

Leading humanitarian organisations strive to enhance the sustainability of their aid to avoid negative impacts on the environment, economy, and society, particularly in low-resource areas. This study explores how the circularity and sustainability of emergency hospital shelters can be assessed using literature, expert interviews, co-creation and design sessions, and pilot testing. The approach combines a qualitative circularity checklist with a quantitative environmental impact assessment, providing valuable input for informed decision-making during procurement and design. The findings reveal that existing buildings are commonly repurposed before importing emergency hospital shelters—finite virgin materials are primarily used for the production of new shelters—and there is a lack of data with which to reflect on end-of-life scenarios. The study recommends enhanced monitoring of the shelter lifecycle through data collection as an input for continuous improvement procedures of design and supply. Crucial are extended stakeholder responsibilities for the entire lifecycle and sector-wide adoption of circularity and sustainability ambitions, mainstreaming approaches and showcasing benefits.

Disasters are more destructive and frequent in the age of climate change, overpopulation, and neoliberal globalisation. While the literature on disaster prevention and management proliferates, the role of for-profit corporations has only recently started to be examined, usually through the lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR)—the expectation that business will consider social and environmental interests in its operations, in addition to profit. There is lately much academic creativity in the CSR space pertaining to why and how large corporations should contribute to disaster recovery, but a conceptual red thread is missing. This paper proposes that the unifying concept is the CSR principle of refraining from exploiting disaster-hit communities. Indeed, CSR principles evolve in time, reflecting contemporary societal priorities. In a contractarian perspective on CSR, a rational community would nowadays have solid reasons to expect, in its social contract with business, the latter's commitment to decency when the former is devastated by earthquakes, pandemics, wars, and the like.

Over the past decade, famine and food insecurity have increased, yet there have been few articles with a critical analysis of their social and political dynamics. This special issue of Disasters aims to revive such analysis and to provide new insights. The special issue contains eight articles, with topics ranging from the role of global politics and neoliberal strategies, to sanctions, war, settler-colonialism, elite capture and inequalities, actions of resistance and resilience, and the challenges of famine prevention in today's global political context. The papers provide both global and local analysis, with the latter covering Kashmir, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.

Food insecurity in South Africa was critical prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, but the problem deepened quickly during the pandemic when government controls caused job losses, a food supply collapse, and escalating hunger. The food and fuel price hikes and political instability that followed led to the July 2021 ‘unrest’, which left more than 350 people dead. Behind this lay a crisis within the governing African National Congress. In this paper, we draw on in-depth interviews and ethnography with individuals working in food-based livelihoods to investigate how people continued to secure food, and how rural food systems were affected. Against a backdrop of hunger, social unrest, and xenophobic hostility, we consider how people perceive the state in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal. We argue that weak governing institutions and South Africa's exposure to globally-triggered spikes in food and fuel prices are leading to food insecurity. Hunger, in turn, is contributing to a crisis of legitimation for the state.

In recent years, the world has faced a rapid rise in humanitarian needs and an increasing risk of famine. Given the potential threats posed by conflict, climate change, economic shocks, and other issues, it is important to be prepared for the possibility of new crises in the future. Drawing on key informant interviews and a literature review, this paper assesses the state of the art in famine prevention, examining a range of technical and political approaches and analysing emerging lessons. Based on the findings, it identifies five levels of famine prevention: (i) averting famine; (ii) anticipating famine; (iii) reducing famine risks; (iv) altering famine risks; and (v) preventing famine risks. The paper argues that the current focus only partially addresses a relatively narrow set of levels. It concludes that a more comprehensive approach that engages all five levels simultaneously could contribute to a global famine prevention framework for the twenty-first century and beyond.

This article explores the role of historical, political, and economic processes in understanding war and famine in Sudan after 2023. The focus is on Al-Gezira, the site of Sudan's largest agricultural scheme. Using ethnography, interviews, and document reviews, the study analyses the Gezira irrigation project in three phases. First, the 1980s and 1990s, when patronage politics dominated its management. Second, the neoliberal strategies of the Gezira Scheme Act of 2005, which enabled Islamist profiteering while increasing vulnerability among farmers and labourers and tensions between them. Third, post 2018, when political movements used evidence of the scheme's deterioration to call for revolution, but once achieved, previous tensions grew and have been manipulated during the war. Sudan provides an example of how decades of war and neoliberal economic strategies have led to a deeply-rooted, violent, and extractive political economy. This has been to the benefit of business and elites, leaving many to a life of precarity, exploitation, and hunger.