Household vulnerability in rural areas: Results of an index applied during a housing crash, economic crisis and under austerity conditions

Abstract

Publication informationGeoforum, 51 : 75-86 Publisher ElsevierItem record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/5026 Publisher's statement þÿ T h i s i s t h e a u t h o r s v e r s i o n o f a w o r k t h a t w a s a c c e p t e d f o r p u b l i c a t i o n i n G e o f o r u m .Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum (Volume 51, þÿ J a n u a r y 2 0 1 4 , P a g e s 7 Abstract. The emergence of the economic crisis in 2007/08 has increasingly exposed rural localities to exogenous shocks and ruptures within the globalised economy. Rather than focusing on economic growth alone, many commentators have begun examining how regions and localities can cope with economic crises by enhancing place resilience and reducing the vulnerability of places to global economic uncertainty. However, scant attention has been given to assessing economic vulnerability at the household scale. This paper attempts to marry and relate the global processes at work in both the literature on financialisation and vulnerability to facilitate understanding of and provide a framework for financialisation research at the household scale. In this context, we develop and apply a Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) to rural areas. Drawing on survey data, the index utilises both objective indicators (e.g. household income) and subjective indicators (e.g. household perceptions of future job insecurity) to provide a nuanced account of living conditions and life satisfaction among rural households in Ireland following a housing crash, economic recession and the widespread adoption of austerity measures across public policy. By adopting a vulnerability approach (rather than providing a 'snapshot'), the HVI enables an assessment of not only current conditions for households, but also the probability of continued declining living standards and the exposure of households to further exogenous shocks. This provides a useful tool in assessing the potential impact of a range of public policies at the household level. In the case of Ireland, a link emerged between increased household vulnerability and rural localities that experienced an oversupply of houses during the recent speculative housing bubble, suggesting that the failure to effectively regulate development and finance has increased household exposure to financial risk.

A New Systematic Approach to Vulnerability Assessment of Innovation Capability of Construction Enterprises

“…Vulnerability research, as a new paradigm of sustainable development, uncertainty and risk, sheds light on how to best analyze the uncertainty of innovation capability. As an innovative method, SPA focuses on uncertainty and is widely applied in the economic and social fields [11,12,18,26,[111][112][113][114], and is combined with some common comprehensive methods, such as E-SPA and P-SPA [44,[100][101][102]. Innovation capability is an important driver of economic development and is closely linked to uncertainty and risk.…”

Social vulnerability of rural households to flood hazards in western mountainous regions of Henan province, China

“…On the one hand, it is difficult to describe the characteristics of social vulnerability if there were only few indicators, but on the other hand, if too many indicators were selected and used, there were also some problems, such as inaccessible data, complex calculation and poor operability (Cutter et al, 2003;Murphy and Scott, 2014). It is important that the selected indicators are in a manageable level, for which the PCA is a good method to use (Liu et al, 2013).…”

“…In order to effectively reduce the adverse effects of a flood disaster, it is necessary to enhance the understanding of the social vulnerability of flood-hazard-prone areas (Cutter et al, 2003Zhang and You, 2014). Since Cutter developed a social vulnerability index to measure the social vulnerability to environmental hazards (Cutter et al, 2003), there has been growing concern and interest in this area (Bjarnadottir et al, 2011;Noriega and Ludwig, 2012;Zebardast, 2013;Siagian et al, 2014;Garbutt et al, 2015). For example, Noriega and Ludwig (2012) assessed the social vulnerability to local earthquake risk in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and they found that "knowledge of the relationship between earthquake hazard and the demographic characteristics of people in the area at risk is essential to mitigate the local impact from earthquakes".…”

“…Since Cutter developed a social vulnerability index to measure the social vulnerability to environmental hazards (Cutter et al, 2003), there has been growing concern and interest in this area (Bjarnadottir et al, 2011;Noriega and Ludwig, 2012;Zebardast, 2013;Siagian et al, 2014;Garbutt et al, 2015). For example, Noriega and Ludwig (2012) assessed the social vulnerability to local earthquake risk in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and they found that "knowledge of the relationship between earthquake hazard and the demographic characteristics of people in the area at risk is essential to mitigate the local impact from earthquakes". Zebardast (2013) constructed a social vulnerability index for earthquake hazards using a hybrid factor analysis and analytical network process model, and their case study showed that their method was a robust approach to construct a composite social vulnerability index.…”

Household wastes: Disciplining the family in the name of austerity

“…In particular, although there is a substantial literature on the role of discourses in (re)producing the neoliberal politics of crisis and austerity (see for instance Fairclough 2013;Blyth 2013;Schmidt 2016), this has tended to leave untouched the question of how the household might be implicated in such discourses. This is not to say that the household is overlooked per se, for scholars have explored both the housing market as a cause of crisis and the consequences of austerity on households (see for instance Hay 2011;Browne 2012;Murphy and Scott 2014;O'Hara 2015). Yet the household as a discursive site in and of itself does not tend to feature in discussions of crisis and austerity.…”