Disaster risk from extreme events and development are intimately linked. Disaster risk management influences and is affected by local development strategies. Trade-offs made in policy and implementation determine winners and losers on the basis of unequal capacity, susceptibility and hazard exposure. Transformation has been introduced as a concept opening new policy space for fundamental shifts in development trajectories. Though policy neutral, when combined with normative frameworks such as the Sustainable development goals it can open up leverage points for determining development trajectories. There is limited empirical evidence on which to base understanding of transformative disaster risk management policy though some work has been done in sister domains such as climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study asks whether transformation pathways for disaster risk management can be observed, offering an initial qualitative analysis to inform policy development. It is based on five case studies drawn from diverse locations exposed to a range of extreme events, examined through a conceptual framework offering five indicators of transformation to aid analysis: intense interaction between actors; the intervention of external actors; system level change extending beyond efficiency to governance and goals; behavior beyond established coping strategies; and behavior extending beyond established institutions. Core characteristics of transformative pathways for disaster risk reduction are identified, including pathway competition, pathway experimentation, pathway scale effects and pathway lock-in. These characteristics are seen to determine the extent to which the disruption consequent on extreme events leads to either transformatory change or relative stasis. The study concludes that transformative disaster risk management, both intentional and incidental can be observed. It is seen that transformations occur primarily at local level. Where policy level change occurs this generally played out at local level too. The particular insight of the study is to suggest that most often the burden of transformation is carried at the local level through the behavior of individuals, populations and civil society. This observation raises an important question for further work: How can the burden of undertaking transformation be shared across scales?

This paper explores the use of "situated knowledges" as a means of grounding debates about "scientific citizenship" within practical research interventions. We describe the development of a focus group methodology that uses opportunities for storytelling to elicit the situated knowledges of research participants regarding human genetic testing. The application of this methodology is illustrated by attention to the potential construction of what Irwin and Michael have referred to as "ethno-epistemic assemblages." Methodological discussion is preceded by a critical review of recent public participation and "dialogue" initiatives that aim to develop scientific citizenship and more accountable technology decision-making.

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This paper uses the concept of 'ethicality' to analyse focus group conversations in New Zealand about biobanking and genetic testing. 'Ethicality' has been used by Arohia Durie, a Māori educationist, to highlight how ethical talk and practice is historically and socially positioned, situated within specific life-worlds, embedded within always partial communities, and articulated within individual life narratives. This situated ethicality is identified in the talk of Māori and non-Māori research participants. The authors (a moral philosopher, two sociologists and a kaupapa Māori social researcher) argue that serious consideration of ethicality presents significant challenges to the abstracted character of much expert ethical analysis, while also illustrating connections between 'ethics talk' and expert discourses.

The world of trade union organisation has been a male dominated world. Men have headed the Federation of Labour and the Council of Trade Unions, and male secretaries have often represented unions with predominantly female members. The dominance of men was significantly challenged in the 1970s and 1980s by a number of women unionists, especially those representing occupational groups with a large female membership. The predominantly female unions which provided them with an organisational base have not until recently received much attention by researchers. As Janet Sayers has indicated, it is now time that the analysis of these unions "should be a priority in labour relations research" (Sayers, 1993: 219).