Desastres Deconstruidos Podcast

¡Hola! Somos Manuela Fernández, Juan Ignacio Manchiola y Lourdes Cicconi y nos hemos propuesto dialogar sobre los desastres en América Latina. Este nuevo contenido, que apunta al público hispanohablante, tiene su origen en la iniciativa de especialistas internacionales, autores de los podcasts en inglés y francés. Mensualmente reflexionaremos sobre las causas profundas de los desastres, para comprender mejor los medios, enfoques y prácticas encaminadas a reducirlos. En cada episodio contaremos con la voz de especialistas de toda Iberoamérica (la música original de nuestra introducción es obra del talentoso multi-instrumentista argentino Gerónimo Hijós). Les damos la bienvenida!

https://open.spotify.com/show/5M9tg0qyOFVRXuN3FcdTrf#login

Disaster Prevention and Management

Call for papers - Liberating disaster studies

Is it possible to liberate disaster studies? Do disaster studies, as discipline, practice and field of enquiry need to be liberated? And from what?

Stemming from the urgent call to decolonize academia and disciplines (Mbembe, 2015; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013) and the return to a critically focused engagement (Brookfield, 2005; Harcourt, 2021), we are inviting contributions from different disciplinary perspectives, entry points, locus of enunciations, and epistemological frames, which can answer the questions, deliberately open, posed above directly to the nature, role, and challenges of liberation in disaster studies.

Liberation of disaster studies here is intended as a provocatory register understood as a double-edged manner. On the one hand, to liberate in a proper sense, looking for the ways in which the practice, the discourses and the theories used, developed, and emerging in disaster studies are allying and allied to broader and expanded struggles for liberations globally, therefore crossing and overlapping with questions of epistemological justice, decolonial struggles, radical pedagogies, solidarity, and mutualistic practices within and beyond STS, planning, anthropology, and sociology. 

On the other hand, to liberate disaster studies from the disciplinary arrogance, uncritical criticism, and rationalistic institutional projections, challenging the very nature of the possibility of critique in the pragmatic, operative and highly empirically base work of disasters.

Attempting to reflect and frame liberation in disaster studies will serve as opportunity to question the overall criticality of disaster studies. Horowitz and Remes recently argued that, in line with many other critical turns in social sciences, “the ‘critical’ part of critical disaster studies signals a critique of dominant intellectual traditions” (2021, p. 2). Unpacking the complex traditions, genres, blind spots, constellations of concepts, they suggest the importance of not looking at disasters as the focus of an expertly defined field of studies, but more as a prism – being disaster socially constructed and produced – as “interdisciplinary intersection”, where such “interpretive fictions” allows “scholars across the humanities and social sciences to think together” (p. 2). A shift that implies thinking disasters as a field of tensions “that is shaped and shape by contests over power” (p. 3) being around predetermined futures (e.g. resilient), disciplinary discourses or the typologies of societal impacts or in the impacts of the imaginations that they let emerge. But as Oliver-Smith (2022) notes, “while the label may be recent, the perspective is not” (p. 28), as the critical disaster studies have a somewhat deeper history – and that “is not only an academic or scholarly paradigm, but one that is shared, participated in and supported by people working in national and international agencies, NGOs, journalism, architecture and many other fields, sometimes at some professional risk” (p. 28). A criticality that is also a liberation from Western epistemologies as Gaillard (2022) notes, or the adoption of a much-needed discussion about the socio-political implications of disaster research, language, and method and the imbrication of disaster with capitalism and neo-liberalism at large (Oliver-Smith, 2015), where destruction and reconstruction are framed as opportunities for growth, investment, and profitability (Brenner & Theodore, 2002; Klein, 2007; Oliver‐Smith, 2015; Vale & Campanella, 2005), as resistance tactics (Cretney & Bond, 2014; Pyles, 2017; Tierney, 2015).

Aligning with what Uekusa, Matthewman and Glavovic (2022) suggest on critical disaster studies seen as a “lens” that is able to offer a much “thicker” view of disasters, deconstructing its very meanings and operations especially in “some domains, particularly those social sciences areas relate to theory, root causes and the often-descriptive operations of power” (p. 3), we aim, thinking on the different meanings of liberations, to consider the conditions of possibilities for a critical approach in the field of disaster studies so prone to technofascism, reductionism, eurocentrism, and racism, and imbricated with issues of “inequity, poverty, sexism, racism and various forms of social marginalisation and oppression predispose some people to particularly adverse impacts” (p. 5), therefore asking: what are the nature, practice, and strategies of critiques in disaster studies and affiliated fields and can a critical disaster studies field really exist?

We are looking for conceptual articles, unconventional points of view, radical epistemologies, and overlooked cases where a certain critical theory is emerging or is adopted. We particularly encourage early career scholars to submit a contribution.  

We invite the authors to reflect upon and engage with the notions of decoloniality, intersectionality, feminism, and justice. Specifically, we ask papers to directly answer the following questions, while illustrating the answers with scholarly and empirical reflections:

• Is it possible be critical in disaster studies?

• What are the nature, practice, and strategies of critiques in disaster studies and affiliated fields?

• What is the meaning of critique in a time when the very existence of everyone, everywhere and everything is threatened?

• Is it possible to instill a series of practices of freedom and liberation emerging from various regions, disciplines and knowledges that contribute to disaster studies? 

Submission information

The full papers for this special issue will be by invitation only.

If you are interested in submitting a paper, please send the extended abstract (up to 500 words) to Olivia Walmsley olivia.walmsley.19@ucl.ac.uk  by 12 December 2022.

The authors of the selected abstracts will be informed in January 2023 and invited to submit the final manuscript by 1 June 2023.

PROWELLMIGRANTS

In India, approximately 90% of the population works in the informal labour force, of which, approximately 75% are migrants. Often, migrants settle in informal settlements, moving from rural to urban areas, where migrants may become immobile – choosing to stay (voluntarily immobile) or are trapped (involuntarily immobile). Becoming immobile or trapped may occur despite previously having chosen migration. Scholars often focus on the economic socio-political aspects of (im)mobility, neglecting the mental health and wellbeing of this population group.

When the COVID pandemic barreled down, everyday life stressors exacerbated immensely, taking a toll on the mental health, wellbeing, and livelihoods of migrants in the context of India. Beyond that, public health measures like physical distancing and frequent handwashing are nearly impossible in densely populated settings. Poor living and working conditions as well as a lack of systematic safeguarding for mobile and/or ‘trapped’ populations increases vulnerability and is exacerbated by underlying mental health conditions and wellbeing concerns, such as anxiety and posttraumatic stress related to migration and weaker support networks.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, activists, policymakers, and researchers across the globe sounded the alarm about the potential exponential harm to such unprotected and vulnerable groups. Over two years into the pandemic, countless questions about migrants’ wellbeing in the context of the COVID-19 crisis are left unanswered.

PROWELLMIGRANTS (PWM) research project is investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lives and wellbeing of migrants in the context of India. PWM aims to identify scientific and policy gaps and provide recommendations for future research, policy, and action. Using storytelling methods, informants actively shape the narratives shared to paint the picture of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their mental health, wellbeing, and livelihoods. Ultimately, PWM intends to support local, national, and international responses in the future.

Learn more:

1. Project Website: https://bit.ly/3sTHbn0

2.  Research Gate: https://bit.ly/3HRewTJ

Further readings:

1. 10.1016/j.pdisas.2021.100163

2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01381-8

Participate in the new i-Rec – Oeuvre durable online debate: Do international agencies, consultants, and other “orchestrators” truly help cities reduce climate-related risks? https://oddebates.com/

Cities play an increasingly active role in governing climate change action. Some experts believe that hybrid forms of urban governance, which merge private consultants with public institutions, are an opportunity for building local capacity. But not everyone is convinced about the role of international agencies, consultants, and other “orchestrators” in reducing risk. Some experts, for instance, raise ethical questions about the legitimacy and transparency of forms of governance that depend on private, non-elected, international organizations that are not accountable to voters or taxpayers. What do you think? 

For this debate, we have invited two internationally recognized experts on urban sustainability and development to defend each viewpoint. Our panelists will present their most persuasive arguments over the next seven days, but the outcome of the debate rests in your hands.

Historia & Desastres - Edición 2022

Seminario permanente e interinstitucional de investigación para el estudio histórico y comparado de los desastres relacionados con amenazas de origen natural, biológico y antrópico. El Seminario se desarrolla en el marco de las actividades de RED Geride (ANID, PCI, REDES190175) y del proyecto LOWRISK, financiado por el programa de investigación e innovación Horizonte 2020 de la Unión Europea, en el marco del acuerdo de subvención Marie Sklodowska-Curie Nº101026373. Las demás instituciones patrocinantes se indicarán en los afiches de cada sesión.

Sortie du premier épisode de L’Envers des Catastrophes

Dans ce premier épisode, Louise Baumann et Loïc Le Dé rencontrent Sandrine Revet, anthropologue, directrice de recherche au Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI) de Sciences Po Paris et co-fondatrice de l’Association pour la Recherche sur les Catastrophes et les Risques en Anthropologie (ARCRA). Ensemble, ils prennent le temps de déconstruire l’expression de ‘catastrophe naturelle’. Ils reviennent notamment sur les raisons qui ont poussé de nombreux chercheur·euse·s dans le domaine à boycotter cette expression et sur les évolutions paradigmatiques qui ont façonné le monde de la recherche et des praticiens quant à la façon d’appréhender et de comprendre les catastrophes.

Link: https://lenversdescatas.podbean.com/e/sandrine-revet/

Pahayag at saliw ng paninindigan tungkol sa pag-aaral ng kalamidad

Presentasyon ng pagsalin sa wikang Filipino ng Disaster Studies Manifesto and Accord sa pangunguna ng GEOG255 (Environmental Hazards & Disaster Management) class ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas sa 21 ng Enero 2022 alas 5 y medya ng hapon.

Link: https://tinyurl.com/4uumt4ru

The invention of disaster: power and knowledge in discourses on hazard and vulnerability

By JC Gaillard

The Invention of Disaster argues that the domination of Western knowledge in disaster scholarship has allowed normative policies and practices of disaster risk reduction to be imposed all over the world. It takes a postcolonial approach to unpack why scholars claim that disasters are social constructs while offering little but theories, concepts and methods supposed to be universal in understanding the unique and diverse experiences of millions of people across very different cultures. It further challenges forms of governments inherited from the Enlightenment that have been rolled out as standard and ultimate solutions to reduce the risk of disaster. Ultimately, the book encourages the emergence of a more diverse set of world views/senses and ways of knowing for both studying disasters and informing policy and practice of disaster risk reduction. Such pluralism is essential to better reflect local realities of what disasters actually are around the world.

Publisher’s link: https://www.routledge.com/The-Invention-of-Disaster-Power-and-Knowledge-in-Discourses-on-Hazard-and/Gaillard/p/book/9781138805620

¿Cómo, por quién y para qué? Investigación y labor creativa en el estudio de desastres en Puerto Rico

Webinar con Tania López Marrero

Youtube: https://bit.ly/2ZPpB7U

En el año 2017 el huracán María impactó el archipiélago de Puerto Rico como un huracán de categoría 4. A raíz de esa experiencia surge el libro Un cambio categoría 4: Memorias del huracán María, el cual incluye las narrativas personales de 15 estudiantes de pregrado de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. En este artículo documentamos el proceso de producción y diseminación del libro. Describimos cómo dicho proceso representó un mecanismo para afrontar las condiciones posteriores al desastre, además de aportar al desarrollo académico y profesional de los estudiantes. Ejemplificamos cómo el libro contribuye a las aspiraciones del manifiesto ‘Poder, prestigio y valores olvidados: Un manifiesto de los estudios sobre desastres’, el cual destaca, entre otras cosas, la necesitad de producción de conocimiento por parte de aquellos que sufren los impactos de los desastres de manera que se reflejen adecuadamente las realidades locales en las que se desatan los desastres y que, además, redunden en beneficio a aquellos que viven en riesgo y experimentan los mismos. En ese contexto reflexionamos y sugerimos unas áreas de énfasis para adelantar los objetivos del manifiesto, de manera específica, y del estudio de desastres y reducción de riesgo, de manera más amplia.

Sajag-Nepal: Preparedness and Planning for the Mountain Hazard and Risk Chain in Nepal 

Sajag-Nepal (2021-2024), funded by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, will examine how to use local knowledge and new interdisciplinary research to inform better decision making, and reduce the impacts of multi-hazards in mountain countries, with a specific focus on Nepal.

Nepal experiences a range of hazards resulting from earthquakes and monsoon rainfall, and is undergoing complex social, political, and economic change. Our research attends to hazards in a way that is responsive to the social-political and physical context of places experiencing risk in Nepal’s mountain environments. Sajag (which means ‘prepared’ in Nepali) is grounded within long-term research with rural residents in Nepal and our experience assessing and planning for earthquake and landslide risk with the Government of Nepal and the United Nations.  

Specifically, Sajag-Nepal will: (1) think critically about the social, political, economic, and environmental context in which disasters occur; (2) establish a new approach to national-scale strategic planning for complex multi-hazard events, including earthquakes, monsoons, and landslides; (3) develop interdisciplinary research to anticipate, plan for, and communicate the range of hazards that occur during the annual monsoon; and (4) find the best ways to utilize local knowledge and interdisciplinary research to inform preparedness and response to multi-hazard disasters. To do this, we bring together researchers and practitioners from Nepal, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, and from a range of disciplines, including the geosciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

Our project values, informed by the Disaster Studies Manifesto, stress inclusivity and local knowledge production. Nepali scholarship is centered in our research, and we are committed to supporting a new cohort of young Nepali researchers who will shape disaster risk management in the future. We launched our Early Career Researcher Network, partnering early career scholars with senior mentors often across quite diverse roles, to help facilitate professional and interdisciplinary growth beyond the lifetime of the project. 

Follow us on Twitter: @SajagNepal

Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast - S5E7: Communication for Social Change

Sep 27th, 2021

This week we discuss communication for social change with two scholars who engage deeply with the work of Paulo Freire, and consider the potential for disaster studies to reflect on the legacy of Freire, and public scholarship and education more broadly. Thanks to Dr Ana Cristina Suzina and Prof Thomas Tufte for sharing such incredible insights! 

Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality in Policy and Practice (GRRIPP) - Networking Plus Partnering for Resilience

The UKRI Collective Fund award 'Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality in Policy and Practice (GRRIPP) - Networking Plus Partnering for Resilience' is a global collaboration and knowledge-exchange project funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund. It aims to bring together theory, policy and practice to promote a gender-responsive approach to disaster management and development.

GRRIPP provides a unique opportunity to engage with academics, practitioners as well as community members in Latin America and Caribbean, Southern Africa, South Asia and the UK - and together we hope to transform thinking around gender in disaster and conflict contexts and challenge the normative notions of resilience and infrastructure through the lens of intersectionality.

We have started the project with a series of the most intellectually stimulating conversations that help us to collectively and democratically determine an agenda for change through facilitating knowledge exchange and enhancing solidarity. We have also commissioned over 20 projects in our partner regions to create spaces for constructive dissent, and build the evidence base informed by grassroots knowledge and experience.

More information from: https://www.grripp.net