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Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal Resilience and resisting resilience: ethnographies in neoliberal L'Aquila post- earthquake Article information: For Authors

Disaster Prevention and Management: An international journal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between neoliberal institutional management of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake and the local dwelling practices, which consequently originated in the new urban layout. Design/methodology/approach – It presents itself as a post-catastrophe ethnography carried out from a specific approach, that is, the street ethnography that consists of collecting the practices and discourses of inhabitants, administrators, experts and commercial operators, which take place on or around the street. Findings – Illustrating the stages from the declaration of the state of emergency to the expertise-proposed reconstruction models, it shows the differences between resilient strategies and policies of urban management and resistant dwelling practices that are analyzed progressively focusing on a particular social group: the teenagers of the alleys. Research limitations/implications – Descending in the alleys means to take a micro-sight that ables to identify present living paths. Practical implications – Based on a long fieldwork, it bridges the gap between “theories” and practices, and it highlights those fields of action that despite being dominated by wide-ranging disaster management and urban planning logics bring out the work of social life in reweaving its threads in contexts of crisis. Social implications – Paying attention to a social portion that often escapes from ethnographic investigation, this study has the merit of dealing with teenagers in this kind of situation. Originality/value – Indeed, this part of society and its creative “culture” receive the focus of a few studies, especially in case of catastrophes.

Reconstructing expertise: engagement agents and trust-work in post- disaster participatory recovery planning

This paper conceptualizes a class of experts, under-recognized by scholars of science and technology, that performs vital functions in participatory, deliberative mechanisms for shaping and governing sociotechnical systems. Their role as facilitators of public engagement does not oppose their role as expert advisors; for them, these roles are mutually supportive. Likewise, “technical” knowledge does not supersede “local” knowledge; rather, putatively distinct forms of knowledge require contextualization and integration if they are to be used sensibly and effectively. Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in post-tsunami Japan, the paper presents a narrative argument in three acts, about the re-imagining and reconfiguration of the built environment in post-disaster communities, and about the kinds of experts and expertise playing crucial roles in these processes. The first act presents a familiar foil: the kind of state-aligned, technocratic experts that have played the role of antagonists in many social scientific accounts of (re-)development and technical policy-making. The second act introduces “a new breed of specialist” (their own words)—theorized as engagement agents—who have developed the peculiarly anti-technocratic “expertise” of engaging non-expert locals and contextualizing technical know-how with local knowledge, constructing this expertise through the praxis of trust-work. They collaborate with communities to re-imagine built townscapes, natural landscapes, and the social lifescapes of local inhabitants. Finally, the third act portrays a variation on the “engagement agent” figure, drawn more from the public than the expert community, 2 ultimately ending on a note of hope for rescuing the agency of local citizens. The attempts of these locals and experts to enable broad participation, and to contextualize and integrate diverse ways of knowing, hint at the possibility of an alternative, richer and more inclusive regime of sociotechnical governance. Thus, ultimately this story looks beyond disaster, Japan, or participatory planning, and contributes to broader understandings of non-expert engagement with specialist knowledge and public participation in sociotechnical change.

Social and Tradition In Local Knowledge For Dealing With Nature Disaster

EDUKATIF : JURNAL ILMU PENDIDIKAN, 2021

Natural disasters as a result of natural damage due to human behaviour and natural behaviour. The main objective of this research is to find out the traditions and forms of social capital applied by the indigenous people of Urug from the perspective of key figures in dealing with disasters. At the same time find the mitigation that is done in the face of disasters. The research method used is the ethnographic method qualitatively. The sample collection technique in this study used the purposive sampling technique. The results of the study show that helping is a tradition to help residents affected by disasters. The unaffected community provided basic needs including rice, food, clothing, blankets and shelter before aid from the government arrived. This tradition is related to the principle of brotherhood in society. The findings are that there is disaster literacy carried out to respond to disaster events such as the relationship between river areas and the potential for disasters t...

Disaster Governance and Collective Intelligences of Construction and Design in Cities of the Global South: Ideas and Questions for Further Research

REDER

Esta nota explora algunos vínculos entre la gobernanza de desastres y las inteligencias colectivas vinculadas a la construcción y diseño de productos en ciudades del Sur Global, al tiempo que ofrece algunas reflexiones para futuras investigaciones. Las ideas presentadas en este trabajo son el resultado de una serie de mesas redondas ocurridas el 2021 entre un grupo de especialistas en el área de estudios sobre desastres e inteligencias colectivas. La metodología se basó en temas discutidos previamente y preguntas orientadoras para explorar tales vínculos: ¿Tienen las inteligencias colectivas el poder de transformar estructuras sociales superiores en el ámbito de la construcción y la gestión del riesgo?; ¿cómo puede la gobernanza (formal) de los desastres y la urbana tratar con las inteligencias colectivas? Los resultados fueron sistematizados y resumidos en este trabajo. Algunos resultados señalan la necesidad de conectar el desarrollo urbano, la gobernanza de desastres, las intelig...

Knowledge, local actors and public action

Policy and Society, 2012

What is the status and role in public action of the knowledge possessed by 'simple' citizens, users and professionals? That is the question broached in both this article and the entire special issue for which it serves as the introduction. To this end, we explore the abundant scientific literature pertaining to the topic and try to situate our own position within the broader setting. After discussing the gradual questioning of the social representations that have made scientific knowledge the ideal and standard by which we measure all knowledge, we argue that many authors with an essentialist approach to knowledge have stressed the differences between scientific knowledge and non-scientific knowledge, often leaving us at an impasse. We argue therefore that it is preferable to advance an approach in which knowledge is as at once relational and in a constant process of hybridization. Having opted for and justified this position, we then focus on the-hybrid-knowledge possessed by citizens, users and professionals, by first probing the reasons for the growing involvement of these actors in the production of knowledge and policies. We then ponder the nature and foundations of the complaints and criticisms frequently levelled at participatory mechanisms as to the actual role played in these areas by the knowledge held by 'local' actors. In the end, we identify proposals defended by certain authors to make the interactions of actors from different social worlds more symmetrical.

Living with Disasters: Perspectives on the (Re-)Production of Knowledge

Nature and Culture, 2017

Although communities around the world have been experiencing destructive events leading to loss of life and material destruction for centuries, the past hundred years have been marked by an especially heightened global interest in disasters. This development can be attributed to the rising impact of disasters on communities throughout the twentieth century and the consequent increase in awareness among the general public. Today, international and local agencies, scientists, politicians, and other actors including nongovernmental organizations across the world are working toward untangling and tackling the various chains of causality surrounding disasters. Numerous research and practitioners’ initiatives are taking place to inform and improve preparedness and response mechanisms. Recently, it has been acknowledged that more needs to be learned about the social and cultural aspects of disasters in order for these efforts to be successful (IFRC 2014).

Working with Available Resources to Develop Local Knowledge to Sustain Development During Crises

Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 2017

This past April 2016 the coast of Ecuador suffered a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The automatic response was to run to the disaster area and help, not knowing that most of the time these unskilled volunteers became another casualty. Months later, government, universities etc. are working nonstop in order to responsibly restore the area. Nonetheless, are we being efficient in order to prevent the possible effects of disasters to come? Almost 70% of Latin America is built on informality, and almost 80% of the destroyed and demolished infrastructure was due the lack of technical support. As professionals and academics, are we acting where it is necessary? A crisis creates opportunities, and knowing that most of Ecuador is in constant danger because of probable natural disasters, acting local may be more effective and can have a long lasting effect, rather than focus all the resources and effort in the disaster areas. These two academic case studies, one which took place just a...

Knowledge and its management for Disaster Risk Reduction: An Approach for Sustainable Development

Knowledge is power. This has contributed for the evolution of human civilization which directly is linked with development activities. Among broadly classified two types of knowledge, the tacit knowledge is being practiced as culture by the communities often being unaware of its potential for sustainable development. Disaster vulnerability is the function of sustainable livelihood of community which is only possible through proper management of knowledge residing on human mind and practices. The more community is knowledgeable, the less vulnerable it is. This paper identifies the modern approach of engineering and technology has overcastted the tacit knowledge/ technology; often by considering them to be rudimentary or superstitious. Among several modes of cultural practices like folk lore, songs, stories, anecdote; proverb is effective means of socialization, internalization, externalization and combination as proposed by Nonaka & Takeuchis’ Knowledge Management model. Furthermore it advocates the importance of tacit knowledge embedded in culture in the form of local proverbs which could be practiced for Disaster Risk Reduction approaches which eventually contributes for sustainable development.

The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change

The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change, 2024

An earthquake in Mexico City spurs the rise of democracy. A plague in South Africa lays the foundations for apartheid. A terrorist attack on New York City triggers massive shifts in global security. A global pandemic sets the stage for the largest civil rights protests in generations. Beyond their physical impact, disasters assault our certainty and shape a narrow space to alter the structure of what we believe. That change can lead us toward disinformation and authoritarianism, or it can lead us toward greater solidarity and human rights. It all depends on the choices we make as we live through crisis; on how, in fact, we choose to know each other. The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change draws on social epistemology, disaster sociology, psychology and feminist philosophy to investigate how disasters function as cauldrons of social transformation, for good and ill. We wrestle with how disasters change us, moment by moment, and provide new strategies to help these tragic events produce positive social transformation, leading to a brighter future during this century of crisis.