Advancing the Disaster and Development Paradigm

Abstract

Consolidation of disaster and development studies as an integrated field of action research that influences policy has proved to be fundamental to global disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, climate change, and humanitarian agreements. However, challenges in achieving targets, such as those of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, requires further advances of the disaster and development paradigm underpinning these aspirations. This article presents perspectives that grew primarily from local action research, particularly research carried out with marginalized and highly at-risk groups of people in Southern Africa and South Asia. Analytical fronts from these findings emphasize disaster and development risk assessment opportunities that consolidate earlier ideas and extend understanding of disaster and development-related risk intervention options. These acknowledge severe shortcomings in disaster risk reduction progress while including greater use of hope as an active ingredient. This process of paradigm exploration remains fundamental to achieving disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, and associated policy objectives. The analysis presented here reiterates earlier groundings in people-centric perspectives, emphasizing social relations and systems of meaning as essential active ingredients for challenging power structures, technology, education, and human behavior. The analysis proposes some consequent thematic fronts for increased investment. These include investing in early buildup of well-being before a disaster, better living with uncertainty, and overcoming the barriers to desired disaster and development outcomes. The article is intended to contribute to an ever-evolving paradigm of disaster and development risk that requires impetus from personal and collective values beyond calculations of disaster and development.

Keywords

Disaster and development paradigm / Disaster risk reduction / Disaster risk management / Local action research

References

[1] Bankhoff G, Frerks G, Hilhorst D. Mapping vulnerability: Disasters, development and people, 2004, London: Earthscan

[2] Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I, Wisner B. At risk, 1994 1 London: Routledge

[3] Brauch HG. Brauch HG, Spring UO, Collins AE, Oswald SES. Sustainable peace through sustainability transition as transformative science: A peace ecology perspective in the Anthropocene. Climate change, disasters, sustainability transition and peace in the Anthropocene, 2019, Switzerland: Springer Nature 175-234

[4] Cannon T. Varley A. Vulnerability analysis and the explanation of “natural” disasters. Disasters, development and the environment, 1994, Chichester: John Wiley 13-30.

[5] Collins AE. Disaster and development, 2009, London: Routledge

[6] Collins, A.E. 2009b. Early warning: The people centred approach to early warning systems and the “last mile”. In World disaster report 2009, ed. L. Knight, 39–68. Geneva: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

[7] Collins AE. Linking disaster and development: Further challenges and opportunities. Environmental Hazards, 2013, 12(1): 1-4

[8] Collins AE. Egner H, Schorch M, Voss M. Beyond experiential learning in disaster and development communication. Learning and calamities: Practices, interpretations, patterns, 2015, London: Routledge 56-76.

[9] Collins AE. Brauch HG, Spring UO, Collins AE, Oswald SES. Advancing disaster and conflict risk reduction. Climate change, disasters, sustainability transition and peace in the Anthropocene, 2019, Switzerland: Springer Nature 7-26

[10] Collins AE, Jones S, Manyena BS, Jayawickrama J. Hazards, risks and disasters in society, 2015, Oxford: Elsevier

[11] Collins AE, Lucas ME, Islam MS, Williams LE. Socio-economic and environmental origins of cholera epidemics in Mozambique: Guidelines for tackling uncertainty in infectious disease prevention and control. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 2006, 63(5): 537-549

[12] Cuny F. Disaster and development, 1983, Oxford: Oxford University Press

[13] Cutter SL, Boruff BJ, Shirley WL. Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Social Science Quarterly, 2003, 84(2): 242-261

[14] De Waal A. Famine crimes: Politics & the disaster relief industry in Africa, 1997, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press

[15] Enarson E, Fordham M. From women’s needs to women’s rights in disasters. Environmental Hazards, 2011, 3(3): 133-136

[16] Gaillard JC. Vulnerability, capacity and resilience: Perspectives for climate and development policy. Journal of International Development, 2010, 22(2): 218-232

[17] Godschalk DR, Beatley T, Berke P, Brower DJ, Kaiser EJ, Bohl CC, Goebel RM. Natural hazard mitigation: Recasting disaster policy and planning, 1999, Washington, DC: Island Press

[18] Hays S. Structure and agency and the sticky problem of culture. Sociological Theory, 1994, 12(1): 57-72

[19] Hewitt K. Crush J. Sustainable disaster? Perspectives and powers in the discourse of calamity. Power of development, 1995, London: Routledge 115-128.

[20] Hewitt K. Regions of risk: A geographical introduction to disasters, 1997, London: Routledge

[21] IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). 2007. World disaster report 2007—focus on discrimination. https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/document/world-disasters-report-2007-focus-discrimination/. Accessed 1 Jul 2018.

[22] Jones S, Aryal K, Collins AE. Local-level governance of risk and resilience in Nepal. Disasters, 2013, 37(3): 442-467

[23] Jones S, Oven K, Manyena BS, Aryal K. Governance struggles and policy processes in disaster risk reduction: A case study from Nepal. Geoforum, 2014, 57: 78-90

[24] Krüger F, Bankoff G, Cannon T, Orlowski B, Schipper LF. Cultures and disasters: Understanding cultural framings in disaster risk reduction, 2015, London: Routledge

[25] Lewis J. Development in disaster-prone places: Studies of vulnerability, 1999, London: Intermediate Technology Publications

[26] Lewis, J. 2012. The good, the bad and the ugly: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) versus Disaster Risk Creation (DRC). Plos Currents. https://doi.org/10.1371/4f8d4eaec6af8.

[27] Lewis J. The susceptibility of the vulnerable: Some realities reassessed. Disaster Prevention and Management, 2014, 23(1): 2-11

[28] Manyena SB, Collins AE, Mudimba F, Mudimba D. “Are you serious to ask me about who owns wildlife?” Politics of autonomy over wildlife resources in the Zambezi Valley. Zimbabwe. Forum for Development Studies, 2012, 40(1): 87-109

[29] Manyena SB, Collins AE, Mudimba F, Mudimba D. Reducing marginalization of fishermen through participatory action research in the Zambezi Valley. Zimbabwe. International Journal of African Development, 2016, 3(2): 5-22.

[30] Mercer J, Kelman I, Taranis L, Suchet-Pearson S. Framework for integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction. Disasters, 2010, 34(1): 214-239

[31] Middleton N, O’Keefe P. Disaster and development: The politics of humanitarian aid, 1998, London: Pluto

[32] Monday JL. Building back better: Creating a sustainable community after disaster. Natural Hazards Informer, 2002, 3: 1-11

[33] Pelling M, Dill K. Disaster politics: Tipping points for change in the adaptation of sociopolitical regimes. Progress in Human Geography, 2010, 34(1): 21-37

[34] Perry RW, Quarantelli EL. What is a disaster? New answers to old questions, 2005, Bloomington, IN: Xlibris

[35] Quarantelli EL. What is a disaster? Perspectives on the question, 1998, London: Routledge

[36] Smith K. Environmental hazards: Assessing risk and reducing disaster, 2001 3 London: Routledge

[37] Titz A, Cannon T, Krüger F. Uncovering “community”: Challenging an elusive concept in development and disaster related work. Societies, 2018, 8(3): 1-28

[38] Tobin GA, Montz BE. Natural hazards: Explanation and integration, 1997, London: Guildford Press

[39] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) 2009 global assessment report on disaster risk reduction: Risk and poverty in a changing climate, 2009, Geneva: United Nations

[40] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Risk returns, 2011, London: Tudor Rose

[41] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) 2011 global assessment report on disaster risk reduction: Revealing risk, redefining development, 2011, Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations

[42] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) 2013 global assessment report on disaster risk reduction—From shared risk to shared value: The business case for disaster risk reduction, 2013, Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations

[43] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030, 2015, Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR

[44] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) 2015 global assessment report on disaster risk reduction—Making development sustainable: The future of disaster risk management, 2015, Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations

[45] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Implementing the Sendai framework to achieve the sustainable development goals, 2016, Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR

[46] UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) Report of the open-ended intergovernmental expert working group on indicators and terminology relating to disaster risk reduction, 2016, Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR and UNGA

[47] Williams L, Collins AE, Bauaze A, Edgeworth R. The role of risk perception in reducing cholera vulnerability. Risk Management, 2010, 12(3): 163-184

[48] Wisner B, Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I. At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, 2004 2 London: Routledge

[49] WHS (World Humanitarian Summit) (ed.). 2016. Together we stand. London: Tudor Rose/Gomer Press.