At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters - Hardcover

Blaikie, Piers; Cannon, Terry; Davis, Ian; Wisner, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415252156 ISBN 13: 9780415252157

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

"An excellent overview of the different human responses to natural hazards, dispelling the belief that little can be done to avoid the tragedies associated with natural hazards." -Gareth Jones, University of Strathclyde "Paradoxically in today's world safety coexists with risk. Chronic threats, novel risks, and dangerous trends ranging from new viruses to global warming crowd in on us. "At Risk offers a rational analysis of the disasters and hazards that concern us." -Allen Perry, University of Wales Swansea ""At Risk has become a classic of disasters literature. Its key argument, that the analysis of disasters should not be segregated from everyday life, is an important lesson for students, researchers, and practitioners." -Maureen Fordham, University of Northumbria

Synopsis:

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. At Risk focuses on what makes people vulnerable. Often this means analyzing the links between poverty and vulnerability. However it is also important to take account of different social groups that suffer more in extreme events, including women, children, the elderly, ethnic minorities, refugees and people with disabilities. Vulnerability has also been increased by global environmental change and economic globalization - it is an irony of the 'risk society' that such efforts to provide 'security' often create new risks. Fifty years of deforestation in Honduras and Nicaragua opened up the land for the export of beef, coffee, bananas, and cotton. It enriched the few, but endangered the many when hurricane Mitch struck these areas in 1998. Rainfall sent denuded hillsides sliding down on villages and towns.

The new edition of At Risk confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters since it was first published 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. The book then concludes with strategies to create a safer world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0415252156
• ISBN 13: 9780415252157
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 492