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Examines the significance of the human factor which is as much of a cause of disasters as the natural environment. Practical and policy conclusions are drawn with a view to disaster reduction and the promotion of safer environments.
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The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.
The arid frontier has been a challenge for humanity from time immemorial. Drylands cover more than one-third of the global land surface, distributed over Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Southern Europe. Disasters may develop as a result of complex interactions between drought, desertification and society. Therefore, proactive planning and interactive management, including disaster-coping strategies, are essential in dealing with arid-frontier development. This book presents a conceptual framework with case studies in dryland development and management. The option of a rational and ethical discourse for development that is beneficial for both the environment and society is emphasized, av...
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Be it the vitality of African popular culture, the vitality of religious ideas or the vitality of artistic forms of expressions - invoking the notion of vitality has become a common practice in Africanist discourses. Most often, the purpose of invoking this notion is to emphasize the unexpected and astonishing power and strength of certain cultural fields in Africa. But what is really meant with the notion of local vitality beyond its metaphorical usage, beyond the underrated and unforeseen? The present volume brings together a number of essays exploring the answers to these questions from different perspectives and disciplines. Based upon an international conference on Local Vitality and the Globalization of the Local organized by the Humanities Collaborative Research Centre at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, the contributions discuss the various dimensions of vitality in the context of debates about identity and self-assertion, locality and appropriation, and rivalry and resista
Political Waters examines how recent reforms of decentralization, privatization, and commercialization are initiated and implemented with regard to water management in Khartoum. In so doing, it uses the prism of water to gain insights into Sudanese (water) politics, power strategies, and state-society relationships. Drawing on detailed, actor-oriented, and ethnographic analyses based on political ecology and on organization sociology, the main findings develop important aspects of rule and emphasize the relevance of studying local micropolitical contexts in order to understand macropolitical dynamics. This work obtained the DAVO (German Middle East Studies Association) Dissertation Award 2012. Dissertation. (Series: Forum Political Geography / Forum Politische Geographie - Vol. 7)
Instigated by technological and political change, Europe's rural areas have undergone profound and all-pervasive restructuring processes. Although the impact of these processes has often been depicted negatively, this is not always the case. Bringing together a range of comparative case studies from France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, the UK and other countries, this book provides a comprehensive and balanced picture of rural change over the past five decades. It explores which aspects of the European countryside have benefited and which have suffered as a consequence of the often contradictory forces of restructuring. The book looks into economic aspects as well as into the social impact of rural change. The final part examines regional issues and illustrates how different rural areas have responded to the transformative pressures.