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

Abstract

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).

Unintended Consequences and Risk(y) Thinking: The Shaping of Consequences and Responsibilities in Relation to Environmental Disasters

“…Even if this is understandable for analytical reasons, this is a substantial shortcoming because the increasing complexity of society has also made many consequences inaccessible from the position of the individual. Technical progress and global interconnectedness have made it difficult to figure out all the consequences of a specific action [21][22][23]. Also, many consequences are not perceptible to individuals, and discerning them requires expert systems that can calculate aggregated effects.…”

“…We do not claim that their evaluation of the disaster is the proper one, but only that it is an important one because they are directly affected by the disaster. Disasters always involve multiple contexts, actors, victims, and audiences [20,23,28]. Organizations involved in the acute phase or recovery phase of a disaster always have to consider this; satisfying one group may involve upsetting another.…”