Anthony Oliver-Smith

Reframing disaster policy: the global evolution of vulnerable communities

The Social Construction of Disaster Disaster is widely perceived as an event beyond human control. The capricious hand of fate has moved against unsuspecting human communities, creating massive destruction and despair.[i] The sudden randomness of the event accentuates the cruelty of its effects, as surely the victims would have acted differently, had they known the risk. Other nations and organizations rush humanitarian aid to rebuild damaged communities, but stop short of examining the policies and practices that contributed to the event.

Successes and Failures in Post‐Disaster Resettlement

In this article I examine the problem of the resettlement of populations after disaster. After considering the complexity of the resettlement process in general and the reasons resettlement is often chosen by authorities following disaster, I discuss a theoretical perspective from development project resettlement which may have relevance for disaster research. This is followed by an examination of those factors in post-disaster resettlement projects which have proved important in affecting successful or unsuccessful outcomes. Site, layout, housing and popular input are presented as crucial issues in the determination of success or failure in post-disaster resettlement. Case material from Turkey, Iran and Peru is presented to illustrate how failure to attend to these issues produces unsuccessful resettlement villages. Case material from Turkey is used to illustrate how attention to these factors improves chances of success in resettlement. Material from cases of voluntary, spontaneous post-disaster resettlement in Guatemala is also presented to underscore the importance of popular participation for successful resettlement despite insufficiencies in design and material inputs. The article ends with a brief consideration of resistance to resettlement and alternative policies.

Preparing for Resettlement Associated with Climate Change

Mitigation and adaptation projects will lead to increased population displacement, calling for new research and attention to past lessons. Although there is agreement that climate change will result in population displacements and migration, there are differing views on the potential volume of flows, the likely source and destination areas, the relative role of climatic versus other factors in precipitating movements, and whether migration represents a failure of adaptation (1, 2). We argue that climate change mitigation and adaptation (M&A) actions, which will also result in significant population displacements, have not received sufficient attention. Given the emergence of resettlement as an adaptation response, it is critical to learn from research on development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR). We discuss two broad categories of potential displacement in response to (i) climate impacts themselves and (ii) large-scale M&A projects. We discuss policy approaches for facilitating migration and, where communities lack resources to migrate, suggest guidelines for organized resettlement.

Post‐Disaster Housing Reconstruction and Social Inequality: A Challenge to Policy and Practice

In post-disaster reconstruction the social aspects of housing provision are important for the success of both emergency shelters and permanent housing, particularly in settlements that have been permanently relocated or entirety rebuilt. The social dimensions of housing reconstruction after disaster are discussed in the context of the long-term effects of reconstruction after the Yungay, Peru Earthquake-Avalanche of 1970. Consideration of these issues presents questions regarding the tension between continuity and change in affected populations, the importance of pre-disaster socio-economic patterns for reconstruction and the criteria used for assessing the success of post-disaster reconstruction and development projects. The author contends that post-disaster housing reconstruction must avoid rebuilding structures which reflect, sustain and reproduce patterns of inequality and exploitation.

Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Highland Peru

The Andean nation of Peru is currently assessed to be particularly vulnerable to climate change. Andean populations are vulnerable to both disasters and climate change effects due to poverty, food insecurity, poor health and marginalisation. Adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction in Peru must address systemic vulnerabilities rather than weather related disaster effects only. Policies must integrate measures to address specific hazards with programs to reduce systemic vulnerabilities and societal inequality.

The Necessity of Early Warning Articulated Systems (EWASs): Critical Issues Beyond Response

Despite scientific and technological advances, current early warning systems (EWSs) cannot be seen as a promising answer for disaster prevention, given that they cannot be seen as an articulated system, but as a component of the capacity-building process needed to achieve disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management (DRM). According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, disaster risk reduction (DRR) describes the policy objective of anticipating future disaster risk, reducing existing exposure, vulnerability or hazard and strengthening resilience. Disaster risk management (DRM) describes the actions that aim to achieve this objective including prospective risk management, such as better planning, designed to avoid the construction of new risks; corrective risk management, designed to address pre-existing risks; and compensatory risk management, such as insurance that shares and spreads risks. This chapter proposes that EWS must be articulated. Early warning articulated systems (EWASs) can be defined as a coordinated structure integrated by the sound processes and sustained practices of ongoing partnerships between communities, scientists, authorities, decision makers, stake holders and every actor involved in the construction of risk. This is characterised by a responsible commitment to achieving and guaranteeing DRR and DRM in space and time. It should be based on disaster risk-integrated science within a legal and ethical framework on which multi-directional and permanent risk communication plays a central role in the construction of a culture of a risk conscious society. It is not exclusively intended to serve as a coordinated system of response, but most importantly is directed towards the comprehension of disaster risk by incorporating the understanding of root causes of disasters, risk perception and the different dimensions of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation. It also must be structured as a capacity-building progression that allows people to recognise the social construction of disaster risk and its potential consequences in order to consider likely disaster scenarios, risk management procedures, realistic measures and response strategies and actions, targeting preparedness, both individually and collectively, especially before critical times. Failure to integrate legally enforced frameworks and ethical codes into EWASs will increase the incoherence in government policies and practices.

ICL Latin-American Network: on the road to landslide reduction capacity building.

There is a clear need for integrated research on landslide disaster risk. Landslide disasters have major impacts in developing countries due to the increasing social vulnerability of both rural and urban communities. In recent decades, landslide disasters in Latin America triggered by both precipitation and earthquakes have also increased considerably. Thus, scientific contributions based on integrated risk research are quite urgent for improving the knowledge base for reducing the vulnerability of exposed communities to landslides. Thus, there is a parallel necessity to promote capacity building for young scientists in Latin America by considering the shift of disaster paradigm to recognize the “unnaturalness” of disasters. Under such a framework, there are particular goals to be pursued including: (1) Development of landslide regional networks with a commitment for understanding risk as a socially constructed process; (2) Engagement of young scientists in integrated landslide risk research; (3) Inducing a scientific multi- and transdisciplinary approach for integrated landslide risk research; (4) Development and implementation of capacity building; (5) Contributing to the dissemination and application of common methodologies on landslide disasters investigations; and (6) Strengthening collaboration on integrated landslide disaster risk research in Latin America. In this paper, we present one of the main activities of the ICL Latin-American network in terms of capacity building carried out in 2013; to that end, the first international workshop on forensic investigations of disasters associated with landslides was held in the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico, from June 26th to July 4th, 2013.

Hazards and Disaster Research in Contemporary Anthropology

Disasters are highly complex, multidimensional processes and events that take place in both the material and social worlds. It is in this multidimensionality of disasters that the salience of anthropological theory and application manifests itself most clearly. The holistic perspective of anthropology is ideally suited to address the multifaceted realities of disasters. As disasters develop and occur, all dimensions of a social structural formation and the totality of its relations with the total environment become involved, affected, and focused in patterns of vulnerability and resilience over time. In disasters are expressed continuity and change, cooperation and conflict, power and resistance, all articulated through the operation of physical, biological, and social systems and their interaction among populations, institutions, and practices. Mining this rich vein of thought and behavior that disasters bring into intense focus, presents not only a challenge but an important opportunity to probe the multiple linkages and relationships they reveal for sociocultural theory and, by the same token, establish what anthropology can offer to the study of disaster both in the realm of research as well as the practice of disaster management.