At risk

Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters

Piers Blaikie, Ben Wisner, Thierry Cannon, Ian Davis

492 pages, parution le 25/11/2003 (2^eme édition)

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Résumé

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. But it is also important to take account of different social groups that suffer more in extreme events, including women, children, the frail and elderly, ethnic minorities, illegal immigrants, 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 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.

Framework and Theory
- The Challenge of Disasters and our Approach
- The Disaster Pressure and Release Model
- Access to Resources and Coping in Adversity
Vulnerability and Hazard Types
- Famine and Natural Hazards
- Biological Hazards
- Coastal Storms
- Earthquakes and Volcanoes
Towards a Safer Environment
- Towards a Safer Environment
Bibliography
Index

L'auteur - Piers Blaikie

Piers Blaikie is Professor in the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia.

L'auteur - Ben Wisner

Ben Wisner is Professor at the School of Social Science, Hampshire College.

L'auteur - Thierry Cannon

Terry Cannon is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Greenwich.

L'auteur - Ian Davis

Ian Davis is Managing Director of the Oxford Centre for Disaster Studies.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Routledge
Auteur(s)	Piers Blaikie, Ben Wisner, Thierry Cannon, Ian Davis
Parution	25/11/2003
Édition	2^eme édition
Nb. de pages	492
Format	15,5x 23,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	810g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780415252164
ISBN13	978-0-415-25216-4