Arabella Fraser | The Open University (original) (raw)

Papers by Arabella Fraser

Progress in Disaster Science

Environment and Urbanization

Funds-based mechanisms for urban adaptation finance are still underexplored. Addressing this gap,... more Funds-based mechanisms for urban adaptation finance are still underexplored. Addressing this gap, as well as the need for greater learning about ‘how’ urban adaptation finance operates, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for such analysis that considers complexity, uncertainty, transformation and vulnerability. We analyse 39 urban projects financed by Climate Adaptation Funds (CAFs) using a qualitative approach. The findings indicate the ongoing dominance of national governments at all stages of the funding cycle, and of a focus on “hard” adaptation measures, but also a diverse set of stakeholder relationships involved in CAF finance which offers potential for greater multi-stakeholder and multisectoral management of complexity. Few projects, however, address the management of uncertainty. While upscaling from projects is a common preoccupation, catalysing effects across sectors are limited, and transformative mechanisms for addressing vulnerability are limited to consultati...

La falta de datos en las áreas informales de las ciudades es una gran limitación para la gestión ... more La falta de datos en las áreas informales de las ciudades es una gran limitación para la gestión de políticas públicas, afectando a todos los ámbitos de la gestión, desde la capacidad de hacer un buen diagnóstico de los problemas en la población más vulnerable, hasta la evaluación de la efectividad de los programas de desarrollo. Esta monografía aborda esta problemática con el objetivo de servir como un manual que ofrezca alternativas de diferentes metodologías de recolección de información en áreas informales a los gestores de políticas públicas. Esto incluye desde las metodologías más tradicionales (encuesta de hogar) a las más innovadoras pasando por fuentes secundarias. La monografía abordará las ventajas e inconvenientes de cada metodología y se proveerán ejemplos de aplicaciones reales en todo el mundo con el objetivo de orientar a los gestores de políticas públicas o investigadores en elegir la mejor metodología aplicada a su contexto especifico, mejorando así sus herramienta...

Working papers upon which the scientific article was based.

Introduction: Urbanisation, security and climate Among ongoing debates about climate change as a ... more Introduction: Urbanisation, security and climate Among ongoing debates about climate change as a security concern, urban contexts are an increasing focus. This reflects their global demographic and economic power: by 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas. Cities contribute to more than 80% of world GDP. Climate change poses multiple serious risks to urban citizens, infrastructures and assets through sea-level rise, flooding, heat and water Urban security is important to overall climate security, given exposure and vulnerability to climate impacts is ever more urbanised. Non-war related violence is a significant security concern in urban areas. Homicide rates due to non-conflict violence are particularly pronounced in Latin American and Caribbean cities, although on the rise worldwide. Beyond mortality statistics alone, a broad spectrum of civic, interpersonal and everyday urban violence potentially overlaps with the impacts of climate change to create mutually constituted vulnerabilities at the individual, household and community scales. These interactions have been poorly considered in both policy and research, but potentially undermine urban adaptation, security and development efforts. Solutions are needed which tackle unmet urban development needs and address security and climate risks together, both through programmatic interventions and urban planning initiatives. We recommend military and diplomatic security advisors, as well as those interested in transnational crime networks, liaise not only with governments in countries of concern, but also work with representatives of cities and local governments to address these underlying issues.

• The practice of improving governance for resilience may be less about the application of recomm... more • The practice of improving governance for resilience may be less about the application of recommendations for particular approaches (such as decentralisation) than an incremental and long-term process of convening willing actors and creating new spaces for engagement between different stakeholders. For international partners to resilience efforts, this approach often challenges conventional modes of operation and this will need to be addressed.

Informal urban settlements are increasingly recognised as vulnerable to climate-related risks. Th... more Informal urban settlements are increasingly recognised as vulnerable to climate-related risks. Their political-legal status is known to influence their vulnerability, but the linkages between state governance and vulnerability in this setting remain under-researched. In particular, as more urban governments develop climate risk assessments, questions arise about how risks are defined, the politics behind the processes of risk definition, and the impact this has on local-scale vulnerabilities. The thesis proposes a new conceptual direction for urban vulnerability research. First, it draws on livelihoods debates to highlight the embeddedness of the livelihoods pathways that shape vulnerability in social and political relations. Second, the thesis shows how the idea of co-production, developed in the context of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and public policy, can be used to investigate the state politics of risk assessment in informal, urban areas. This theoretical frame generat...

At the start of March, international development ministers from the world’s richest countries wil... more At the start of March, international development ministers from the world’s richest countries will gather round the table in Paris to identify the actions needed to make aid work for one billion people living in extreme poverty. Two years ago in Rome, these same countries made a series of commitments to reform the aid system, and transform it into an effective instrument of change. But instead of celebrating progress, they will be confronted by the results of two years of inaction. This is a sorry tale of muddle and hypocrisy, dithering and stalling, with the world’s poor cast unwittingly in the role of fall guy.

In Cities on a Finite Planet: Towards transformative responses to climate change, Eds. Sheridan B... more In Cities on a Finite Planet: Towards transformative responses to climate change, Eds. Sheridan Bartlett and David Satterthwaite. Routledge 2016.

Global Views on Climate Relocation and Social Justice, 2021

Climate and Development, 2019

As experts predict that at least some irreversible climate change will occur with potentially dis... more As experts predict that at least some irreversible climate change will occur with potentially disastrous effects on the lives and well-being of vulnerable communities around the world, it is paramount to ensure that these communities are resilient and have adaptive capacity to withstand the consequences. Adaptation and resilience planning present several ethical issues that need to be resolved if we are to achieve successful adaptation and resilience to climate change, taking into consideration vulnerabilities and inequalities in terms of power, income, gender, age, sexuality, race, culture, religion, and spatiality. Sustainable adaptation and resilience planning that addresses these ethical issues requires interdisciplinary dialogues between the natural sciences, social sciences, and philosophy, in order to integrate empirical insights on socioeconomic inequality and climate vulnerability with ethical analysis of the underlying causes and consequences of injustice in adaptation and resilience. In this paper, we set out an interdisciplinary research agenda for the inclusion of ethics and justice theories in adaptation and resilience planning, particularly into the Sixth Assessment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6). We present six core discussions that we believe should be an integral part of these interdisciplinary dialogues on adaptation and resilience as part of IPCC AR6, especially Chapters 2 ("Terrestial and freshwater ecosystems and their services"), 6 ("Cities, settlements and key infrastructure"), 7 ("Health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities"), 8 ("Poverty, livelihoods and sustainable development"), 16 "Key risks across sectors and regions"), 17 ("Decision-making options for managing risk"), and 18 ("Climate resilient development pathways").: (i) Where does 'justice' feature in resilience and adaptation planning and what does it require in that regard?; (ii) How can it be ensured that adaptation and resilience strategies protect and take into consideration and represent the interest of the most vulnerable women and men, and communities?; (iii) How can different forms of knowledge be integrated within adaptation and resilience planning?; (iv) What trade-offs need to be made when focusing on resilience and adaptation and how can they be resolved?; (v) What roles and responsibilities do different actors have to build 3 resilience and achieve adaptation?; (vi) Finally, what does the focus on ethics imply for the practice of adaptation and resilience planning?

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2017

Studies of urban disaster and climate change risk have increasingly invoked governmentality as a ... more Studies of urban disaster and climate change risk have increasingly invoked governmentality as a theoretical frame for understanding how urban risk governance functions. This article argues that the use of governmentality in this context can advance political readings of urban vulnerability to climate risk. However, using the idiom of co-production from Science and Technology Studies, I question current treatments of the politics of expertise in the urban risk governance literature, highlighting the need to understand the political commitments and practices that shape the implementation of purportedly technical risk knowledge and their particular manifestation in the context of informal, urban settlements. A case study from Bogota, Colombia, links the science and practice of state risk management to vulnerability outcomes in informal urban settlements. It shows how a new suite of qualitative methodological approaches are revealing of the power-knowledge dynamics in governance that i...

Planning Theory & Practice, 2018

For guidance on citations see FAQs.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

Progress in Disaster Science

Environment and Urbanization

Working papers upon which the scientific article was based.

Global Views on Climate Relocation and Social Justice, 2021

Climate and Development, 2019

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2017

Planning Theory & Practice, 2018

For guidance on citations see FAQs.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017

Urban Poverty and Climate Change Life in the slums of Asia, Africa and Latin America, May 2016

Key messages • Underlying and context-dependent political relationships inform how different appr... more Key messages • Underlying and context-dependent political relationships inform how different approaches to governance for improved resilience to climate shocks and stressors play out in practice. • The practice of improving governance for resilience may be less about the application of recommendations for particular approaches (such as decentralisation) than an incremental and long-term process of convening willing actors and creating new spaces for engagement between different stakeholders. For international partners to resilience efforts, this approach often challenges conventional modes of operation and this will need to be addressed. • In this process, there will be trade-offs that need to be acknowledged, and the approach to such trade-offs agreed, between the parties involved. • The role of different forms of political institution in shaping governance for resilience merits more investigation, and particularly analysis of the role of political parties and voting systems, executive– legislative relations, constitutional forms, trade unions, bureaucracies and the role of the press. • There are entry points for engaging with informal political institutions to ensure they work to distribute long-term benefits for all – which also involves recognising how formal and informal institutions interrelate.

Informal urban settlements are increasingly recognised as vulnerable to climate related risks. Th... more Informal urban settlements are increasingly recognised as vulnerable to climate related risks. Their political-legal status is known to influence their vulnerability, but the linkages between state governance and vulnerability in this setting remain under researched. In particular, as more urban governments develop climate risk assessments, questions arise about how risks are defined, operationalised and received; and the impact this politics has on local-scale vulnerabilities. The thesis proposes a new conceptual direction for urban vulnerability research. First, it draws on livelihoods debates to highlight how the politics of access influences vulnerability, and shows how this is shaped through the interaction between agency and structure, and the social and political relations of meaning and power in which livelihoods decisions are embedded. Second, the thesis shows how theories of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and public policy, and theories of the state, can be used to investigate the politics of risk assessment in informal, urban areas. This theoretical frame generates insights at the interface between development studies and post-structural thought, providing a new perspective on questions of how adaptation takes place in informal areas, who adapts and what they are adapting to. The conceptual propositions of the thesis are applied to a landslide risk management programme in three informal settlements in Bogota, Colombia. The thesis presents empirical findings that illustrate (i) how risk assessments are shaped by state values and practices particular to informal sites in ways that create new inclusions and exclusions in policy; (ii) how inhabitants respond to risk in the context of sociallyembedded meanings and identities and their relationships with the state; and (iii) how people’s agency to transform risks is forged in socio-economic and political networks of power. The thesis argues for a re-politicisation of approaches to understanding urban risk and adaptation, and for transformations in policy to reflect this approach.

for dissemination, 100 words) This paper describes the novel approaches adopted in PEARL to under... more for dissemination, 100 words) This paper describes the novel approaches adopted in PEARL to understand the formation of risk and vulnerability in the case of small-scale but high local impact disasters, namely a qualitative root cause analysis coupled with both a survey-based and spatially-based vulnerability assessment. The paper reflects on the application of these approaches in research sites across Europe and the Caribbean and their integration in a holistic risk assessment model through respective agent-based models. The evolution of both approaches in PEARL is charted, and lessons for other holistic risk assessment frameworks discussed.

for dissemination, 100 words) A sourcebook for end-users that encompasses examples of disaster ro... more for dissemination, 100 words) A sourcebook for end-users that encompasses examples of disaster root cause -from European as well as international events -to improve practical application. The sourcebook will provide ideas of how the approach of the RRCA might be integrated into local development and risk management planning processes and priorities

This paper defines a framework for the holistic analysis of risk in PEARL as well as a specific r... more This paper defines a framework for the holistic analysis of risk in PEARL as well as a specific risk and root cause analysis framework to guide research in Work Package 1 into the formation of risk and vulnerability in coastal regions. The paper then proposes methods to test a novel risk and root cause assessment framework through the in-depth investigation of case studies.

This paper focusses on one aspect of contemporary urbanisation processes that has been garnering ... more This paper focusses on one aspect of contemporary urbanisation processes that has been garnering increased attention in literature concerned with urban climate-related shocks and resilience, and will shape the future of urban risk: urban informality. A preoccupation with informality is not of course new to urban studies or urban development. In the most recent wave of critical studies, however, significant literature has emerged that has offered new ways to conceptualise and chart informality in order to understand urbanisation (as a real world process) and urbanism (as a way of thinking). This paper seeks to explore the ramifications of these debates for urban environmental theory and practice, in particular in adapting to climate-related risks (linked to both current and future climate variability and climate change) as a subset of environmental risk. The paper is based on two pieces of interconnected work by the author: the first, a PhD thesis examining how the politics of informality shapes risk and vulnerability in informal, urban settlements1 and the second, a more recent, ongoing conceptual review of the global policy and academic literature pertaining to informality and urban climate risk and adaptation.

The political momentum of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), coupled with a technical conse... more The political momentum of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), coupled with a technical consensus about how to tackle maternal mortality, greatly improves the prospect of reducing women's death and disability rates. In its campaigning and advocacy work on the MDGs, Oxfam will focus on the need to raise the national and international finance for the investments that this requires. Finance is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for change to the lives of millions of women who suffer as a result of pregnancy and childbirth – and it is sorely lacking. This is no argument for technical quick-fixes, however. International efforts to reduce maternal mortality must concentrate on improving health systems – a project that entails rebuilding states to deliver services – but they must also look to an advocacy grounded in women's rights, as articulated in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Cairo process.

In a world in which millions are ‘voting with their feet’ and moving to the cities, while environ... more In a world in which millions are ‘voting with their feet’ and moving to the cities, while environmental degradation and rising energy prices pose new threats to models of agricultural production that have held sway over the last generation, what does the future hold for the poorest people who depend on agriculture for their livelihood and for the environment that sustains us?