The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch
The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch

Author: Marisa O. Ensor

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-05-10

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0816549303

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Around the world disaster vulnerability is on the rise. The incidence and intensity of disasters have increased in recent decades with lives being shattered and resources being destroyed across broad geographic regions each year. As it swept across the Honduran landscape, the exceptional size, power and duration of Hurricane Mitch abruptly and brutally altered the already diminished economic, social, and environmental conditions of the population. In the aftermath of the disaster a group of seven socio-environmental scientists set out to investigate the root causes of the heightened vulnerability that characterized pre-Mitch Honduras, the impact of the catastrophe on the local society, and the subsequent recovery efforts. Edited by Marisa O. Ensor, this volume presents the findings of their investigation. The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch offers a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and long-term consequences of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork and environmental assessments, this volume illustrates the importance of adopting an approach to disaster research and practice that places “natural” trigger events within their political, cultural, and socio-economic contexts. The contributors make a compelling case against post-disaster recovery efforts that limit themselves to alleviating the symptoms, rather than confronting the root causes of the vulnerability that prefigured the disaster.

Naming a Transnational Black Feminist Framework
Naming a Transnational Black Feminist Framework

Author: K. Melchor Quick Hall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-22

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1000729958

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By writing Black feminist texts into the international relations (IR) canon and naming a common Black feminist praxis, this text charts a path toward a Transnational Black Feminist (TBF) Framework in IR, and outlines why a TBF Framework is a much needed intervention in the field. Situated at the intersection of IR and Black feminist theory and praxis, the book argues that a Black feminist tradition of engaging the international exists, has been neglected by mainstream IR, and can be written into the IR canon using the TBF Framework. Using research within the Black indigenous Garifuna community of Honduras, as well as the scholarship of feminists, especially Black feminist anthropologists working in Brazil, the author illustrates how five TBF guiding principles—intersectionality, solidarity, scholaractivism, attention to borders/boundaries, and radically transparent author positionality—offer a critical alternative for engaging IR studies. The text calls on IR scholars to engage Black feminist scholarship and praxis beyond the written page, through its living legacy. This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to feminist scholars, international relations students, and grassroots activists. It will also appeal to students of related disciplines including anthropology, sociology, global studies, development studies, and area studies.

Crisis Management Beyond the Humanitarian-Development Nexus
Crisis Management Beyond the Humanitarian-Development Nexus

Author: Atsushi Hanatani

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-27

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1351006800

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In addressing humanitarian crises, the international community has long understood the need to extend beyond providing immediate relief, and to engage with long-term recovery activities and the prevention of similar crises in the future. However, this continuum from short-term relief to rehabilitation and development has often proved difficult to achieve. This book aims to shed light on the continuum of humanitarian crisis management, particularly from the viewpoint of major bilateral donors and agencies. Focusing on cases of armed conflicts and disasters, the authors describe the evolution of approaches and lessons learnt in practice when moving from emergency relief to recovery and prevention of future crises. Drawing on an extensive research project conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute, this book compares how a range of international organizations, bilateral cooperation agencies, NGOs, and research institutes have approached the continuum in international humanitarian crisis management. The book draws on six humanitarian crises case studies, each resulting from armed conflict or natural disasters: Timor-Leste, South Sudan, the Syrian crisis, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, and Typhoon Yolanda. The book concludes by proposing a common conceptual framework designed to appeal to different stakeholders involved in crisis management. Following on from the World Humanitarian Summit, where a new way of working on the humanitarian-development nexus was highlighted as one of five major priority trends, this book is a timely contribution to the debate which should interest researchers of humanitarian studies, conflict and peace studies, and disaster risk-management.

Sea of Storms
Sea of Storms

Author: Stuart B. Schwartz

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016-07-26

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 0691173605

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A panoramic social history of hurricanes in the Caribbean The diverse cultures of the Caribbean have been shaped as much by hurricanes as they have by diplomacy, commerce, or the legacy of colonial rule. In this panoramic work of social history, Stuart Schwartz examines how Caribbean societies have responded to the dangers of hurricanes, and how these destructive storms have influenced the region's history, from the rise of plantations, to slavery and its abolition, to migrations, racial conflict, and war. Taking readers from the voyages of Columbus to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Schwartz looks at the ethical, political, and economic challenges that hurricanes posed to the Caribbean’s indigenous populations and the different European peoples who ventured to the New World to exploit its riches. He describes how the United States provided the model for responding to environmental threats when it emerged as a major power and began to exert its influence over the Caribbean in the nineteenth century, and how the region’s governments came to assume greater responsibilities for prevention and relief, efforts that by the end of the twentieth century were being questioned by free-market neoliberals. Schwartz sheds light on catastrophes like Katrina by framing them within a long and contentious history of human interaction with the natural world. Spanning more than five centuries and drawing on extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas, Sea of Storms emphasizes the continuing role of race, social inequality, and economic ideology in the shaping of our responses to natural disaster.

Natural Hazards and Disasters [2 volumes]
Natural Hazards and Disasters [2 volumes]

Author: Bimal Kanti Paul

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 522

ISBN-13:

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This two-volume encyclopedia provides the science behind such heart-pumping geophysical hazards as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones, and floods, as well as authoritative entries on notable natural disasters around the world and the agencies that help those they impact. Natural Hazards and Disasters explores the sometimes harsh effects of nature on human life. The set discusses the physical science behind specific types of hazards and disasters (such as blizzards and tsunamis), their impact on our lives, how damage is mitigated or prevented, recovery and reconstruction, and the current research and technology used for managing or even eliminating the hazards. Written by experts in the field, the set also explores a variety of extreme events from around the world, including the 2010–2011 Christchurch Earthquakes (New Zealand), the 2017–2018 Thomas Fire (United States), and the 2018 Kerala Floods (India). Also covered are the world's major international and nonprofit aid agencies, like the Salvation Army and Oxfam, that assist disaster victims.

The Anthropology of Disasters in Latin America
The Anthropology of Disasters in Latin America

Author: Virginia García-Acosta

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-12-09

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0429015178

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This book offers anthropological insights into disasters in Latin America. It fills a gap in the literature by bringing together national and regional perspectives in the study of disasters. The book essentially explores the emergence and development of anthropological studies of disasters. It adopts a methodological approach based on ethnography, participant observation, and field research to assess the social and historical constructions of disasters and how these are perceived by people of a certain region. This regional perspective helps assess long-term dynamics, regional capacities, and regional-global interactions on disaster sites. With chapters written by prominent Latin American anthropologists, this book also considers the role of the state and other nongovernmental organizations in managing disasters and the specific conditions of each country, relative to a greater or lesser incidence of disastrous events. Globalizing the existing literature on disasters with a focus on Latin America, this book offers multidisciplinary insights that will be of interest to academics and students of geography, anthropology, sociology, and political science.

Making a Place for the Future in Maya Guatemala
Making a Place for the Future in Maya Guatemala

Author: John P. Hawkins

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0826366619

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In 1998, Hurricane Mitch pounded the isolated village of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán in mountainous western Guatemala, destroying many homes. The experience traumatized many Ixtahuaquenses. Much of the community relocated to be safer and closer to transportation that they hoped would help them to improve their lives, acquire more schooling, and find supportive jobs. This study followed the two resulting communities over the next quarter century as they reconceived and renegotiated their place in Guatemalan society and the world. Making a Place for the Future in Maya Guatemala shows how humans continuously evaluate and rework the efficacy of their cultural heritage. This process helps explain the inevitability and speed of culture change in the face of natural disasters and our ongoing climate crisis.

Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Change
Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Change

Author: Jennifer E. Duyne Barenstein

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-10-29

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1439888159

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Successful recovery following a disaster depends upon transcending the disciplinary divides of architecture, engineering, and planning and emphasizing the importance of community perspectives in the post-disaster reconstruction process. Effective results in community recovery mandate that we holistically examine the complex interrelationship between physical and social dimensions. Through a series of case studies, Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Change: Communities' Perspectives explores community viewpoints on post-disaster aid provided by external agencies and demonstrates how equity and effectiveness are affected by community social organization, power structures, and leadership capacities. The book further focuses on how external aid in turn affects community livelihoods, cultures, and social organizations. Each chapter serves as a real-world case study based on several months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in India, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Argentina. Post-disaster community recovery depends on informed decisions that build on lessons learned from past experiences. This book shows how different communities have coped with and responded to various external interventions. Focusing on housing reconstruction and the restoration of livelihood, the authors demonstrate that changes in settlement location, morphology, housing materials, and design produce multiple cascading consequences for the inhabitants of reconstructed settlements. Ultimately, the book establishes the importance of integrating community perspectives in policies and programs for sustainable post-disaster reconstruction—enabling greater resiliency as well as future disaster risk reduction.

The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch
The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch

Author: Marisa O. Ensor

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9780816527854

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Around the world disaster vulnerability is on the rise. The incidence and intensity of disasters have increased in recent decades with lives being shattered and resources being destroyed across broad geographic regions each year. As it swept across the Honduran landscape, the exceptional size, power and duration of Hurricane Mitch abruptly and brutally altered the already diminished economic, social, and environmental conditions of the population. In the aftermath of the disaster a group of seven socio-environmental scientists set out to investigate the root causes of the heightened vulnerability that characterized pre-Mitch Honduras, the impact of the catastrophe on the local society, and the subsequent recovery efforts. Edited by Marisa O. Ensor, this volume presents the findings of their investigation. The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch offers a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and long-term consequences of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork and environmental assessments, this volume illustrates the importance of adopting an approach to disaster research and practice that places anaturala trigger events within their political, cultural, and socio-economic contexts. The contributors make a compelling case against post-disaster recovery efforts that limit themselves to alleviating the symptoms, rather than confronting the root causes of the vulnerability that prefigured the disaster.

Environmental Hazards
Environmental Hazards

Author: Keith Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-01-13

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1134088248

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The expanded fifth edition of Environmental Hazards provides a balanced overview of all the major rapid-onset events that threaten people and what they value in the twenty-first century. It integrates cutting-edge material from the physical and social sciences to demonstrate how natural and human systems interact to place communities of all sizes, and at all stages of economic development, at risk. It also shows how the existing losses to life and property can be reduced. Part I of this established textbook defines basic concepts of hazard, risk, vulnerability and disaster. Critical attention is given to the evolution of theory, to the scale of disaster impact and to the various strategies that have been developed to minimise the impact of damaging events. Part II employs a consistent chapter structure to explain how individual hazards, such as earthquakes, severe storms, floods and droughts, plus biophysical and technological processes, create distinctive patterns of loss throughout the world. The ways in which different societies make a positive response to these threats are placed in the context of ongoing global change. In this extensively revised edition: An entirely new and innovative chapter explains how modern-day complexity contributes to the generation of hazard and risk Additional material supplies fresh perspectives on landslides, biophysical hazards and the increasingly important role of global-scale processes The increased use of boxed sections allows a greater focus on significant generic issues and offers more opportunity to examine a carefully selected range of up-to-date case studies Each chapter now concludes with an annotated list of key resources, including further reading and relevant websites. Environmental Hazards is a well-written and generously illustrated introduction to all the natural, social and technological events that combine to cause death and destruction across the globe. It draws on the latest research findings to guide the student from common problems, theories and policies to explore practical, real-world situations. This authoritative, yet accessible, book captures both the complexity and dynamism of environmental hazards and has become essential reading for students of every kind seeking to understand the nature and consequences of a most important contemporary issue.