Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: A. Alemanno
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 0857935739
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
'The challenges posed by risky decisions are well documented. These decisions become even more daunting when they must be made in a midst of a crisis. Using the European volcanic risk crisis as the principal case study, Alberto Alemanno and the other contributors to this thought provoking volume derive valuable lessons for how policy makers can cope with the attendant time pressures, uncertainties, coordination issues, and risk communication problems. Once the next emergency risk situation occurs, it may be too late to learn about how to respond. Governing Disasters should be required reading for all policy makers and risk analysts in advance of the next international risk crisis.' – W. Kip Viscusi, Vanderbilt University, US and Editor, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 'Catastrophes present us with a paradox. Many people don't think they will happen, so before a catastrophe, regulations are typically viewed as unnecessarily invasive. But in the aftermath of a disaster everybody suddenly blames the government for not having been strict enough. Overregulation often follows. In light of the unprecedented series of catastrophes in recent years, more than ever, top leaders in government and business must understand and overcome this regulatory challenge. Alberto Alemanno's innovative book tells you how.' – Erwann Michel-Kerjan, The Wharton School's Center for Risk Management, US 'Even the best-laid policy plans go awry. What do we do when, despite our best preventive efforts, a surprise crisis occurs? How do we regulate a disaster while it is unfolding? From volcanoes to tornadoes, and tsunamis to terrorists, extreme events test our resilience. In this illuminating volume, regulatory scholar Alberto Alemanno and his colleagues diagnose the complex combination of natural disasters and flawed institutions that make these crises so difficult to manage. They offer a set of insights and remedies that must be read by anyone concerned to deal with disasters in the future.' – Jonathan B. Wiener, Duke University, US 'This comprehensive edited volume makes an important and much needed contribution to an increasingly important dimension of risk assessment and management, namely emergency risk regulation. Drawing upon the responses of government, businesses, and the public to the 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland – which disrupted European air travel, it offers important lessons for policy-makers who are likely to confront similar unanticipated global risks. The recent nuclear power disaster in Japan makes this volume both timely and prescient.' – David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, US Emergency crises have always tested our ability to organise and swiftly execute a coordinated response. Both natural and unnatural disasters pose new questions to which previous experience provides only limited answers. These challenges are arguably greater than ever, in a more globalised world confronted by a truly transnational hazard. This is the first volume that addresses the complexities of the volcanic ash cloud that overshadowed Europe in April 2011, but has subsequently struck again in Australia, Chile and Europe. It does so from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing upon research from economics, law, sociology and other fields, as well as volcanology and leading expertise in jet engineering. Whilst our knowledge base is wide-ranging, there is a common focus on the practical lessons of the ash cloud crisis both for subsequent eruptions and for emergency risk regulation more generally. Among many other insights Governing Disasters explains why it was that industry and regulators were largely unprepared for a phenomenon about which we were not scientifically ignorant. It concludes that the toolbox of risk regulation should not be expected to provide ready-made solutions but applied flexibly, creatively and with some humility. This unique and timely resource will be useful to policymakers, scholars, officials of international organizations, research institutions and consumer groups who want to acquire or further develop their capacities for risk regulation. For teaching purposes it is ideal for courses on risk regulation, disaster law and policy, and crisis management or as a supplement in courses on environmental law, transport law, space law or land use.

Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: A. Alemanno
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 0857935739
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Get Book Here

Book Description
'The challenges posed by risky decisions are well documented. These decisions become even more daunting when they must be made in a midst of a crisis. Using the European volcanic risk crisis as the principal case study, Alberto Alemanno and the other contributors to this thought provoking volume derive valuable lessons for how policy makers can cope with the attendant time pressures, uncertainties, coordination issues, and risk communication problems. Once the next emergency risk situation occurs, it may be too late to learn about how to respond. Governing Disasters should be required reading for all policy makers and risk analysts in advance of the next international risk crisis.' – W. Kip Viscusi, Vanderbilt University, US and Editor, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 'Catastrophes present us with a paradox. Many people don't think they will happen, so before a catastrophe, regulations are typically viewed as unnecessarily invasive. But in the aftermath of a disaster everybody suddenly blames the government for not having been strict enough. Overregulation often follows. In light of the unprecedented series of catastrophes in recent years, more than ever, top leaders in government and business must understand and overcome this regulatory challenge. Alberto Alemanno's innovative book tells you how.' – Erwann Michel-Kerjan, The Wharton School's Center for Risk Management, US 'Even the best-laid policy plans go awry. What do we do when, despite our best preventive efforts, a surprise crisis occurs? How do we regulate a disaster while it is unfolding? From volcanoes to tornadoes, and tsunamis to terrorists, extreme events test our resilience. In this illuminating volume, regulatory scholar Alberto Alemanno and his colleagues diagnose the complex combination of natural disasters and flawed institutions that make these crises so difficult to manage. They offer a set of insights and remedies that must be read by anyone concerned to deal with disasters in the future.' – Jonathan B. Wiener, Duke University, US 'This comprehensive edited volume makes an important and much needed contribution to an increasingly important dimension of risk assessment and management, namely emergency risk regulation. Drawing upon the responses of government, businesses, and the public to the 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland – which disrupted European air travel, it offers important lessons for policy-makers who are likely to confront similar unanticipated global risks. The recent nuclear power disaster in Japan makes this volume both timely and prescient.' – David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley, US Emergency crises have always tested our ability to organise and swiftly execute a coordinated response. Both natural and unnatural disasters pose new questions to which previous experience provides only limited answers. These challenges are arguably greater than ever, in a more globalised world confronted by a truly transnational hazard. This is the first volume that addresses the complexities of the volcanic ash cloud that overshadowed Europe in April 2011, but has subsequently struck again in Australia, Chile and Europe. It does so from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing upon research from economics, law, sociology and other fields, as well as volcanology and leading expertise in jet engineering. Whilst our knowledge base is wide-ranging, there is a common focus on the practical lessons of the ash cloud crisis both for subsequent eruptions and for emergency risk regulation more generally. Among many other insights Governing Disasters explains why it was that industry and regulators were largely unprepared for a phenomenon about which we were not scientifically ignorant. It concludes that the toolbox of risk regulation should not be expected to provide ready-made solutions but applied flexibly, creatively and with some humility. This unique and timely resource will be useful to policymakers, scholars, officials of international organizations, research institutions and consumer groups who want to acquire or further develop their capacities for risk regulation. For teaching purposes it is ideal for courses on risk regulation, disaster law and policy, and crisis management or as a supplement in courses on environmental law, transport law, space law or land use.

Governing Affect

Governing Affect PDF Author: Roberto E. Barrios
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496200144
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
"Roberto E. Barriospresents an ethnographic study of the aftermaths of four natural disasters: southern Honduras after Hurricane Mitch; New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; Chiapas, Mexico, after the Grijalva River landslide; and southern Illinois following the Mississippi River flood. Focusing on the role of affect, Barrios examines the ways in which people who live through disasters use emotions as a means of assessing the relevance of governmentally sanctioned recovery plans, judging the effectiveness of such programs, and reflecting on the risk of living in areas that have been deemed prone to disaster. Emotions such as terror, disgust, or sentimental attachment to place all shape the meanings we assign to disasters as well as our political responses to them. The ethnographic cases in Governing Affect highlight how reconstruction programs, government agencies, and recovery experts often view postdisaster contexts as opportune moments to transform disaster-affected communities through principles and practices of modernist and neoliberal development. Governing Affect brings policy and politics into dialogue with human emotion to provide researchers and practitioners with an analytical toolkit for apprehending and addressing issues of difference, voice, and inequity in the aftermath of catastrophes."--

Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: Shahla F. Ali
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316598454
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
With growing awareness of the devastation caused by major natural disasters, alongside integration of governance and technology networks, the parameters of humanitarian aid are becoming more global. At the same time, humanitarian instruments are increasingly recognizing the centrality of local participation. Drawing on six case studies and a survey of sixty-nine members of the relief sector, this book suggests that the key to the efficacy of post-disaster recovery is the primacy given to local actors in the management, direction and design of relief programs. Where local partnership and knowledge generation and application is ongoing, cohesive, meaningful and inclusive, disaster relief efforts are more targeted, cost-effective, efficient and timely. Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief examines the interplay between law, governance and collaborative decision making with international, state, private sector and community actors in order to understand the dynamics of a global decentralized yet coordinated process of post-disaster humanitarian assistance.

Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: S. Revet
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137435461
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Based on extensive ethnographic and historical research conducted in diverse field locations, this volume offers an acute analysis of how actors at local, national, and international levels govern disasters; it examines the political issues at stake that often go unaddressed and demonstrates that victims of disaster do not remain passive.

Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: S. Revet
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137435461
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Based on extensive ethnographic and historical research conducted in diverse field locations, this volume offers an acute analysis of how actors at local, national, and international levels govern disasters; it examines the political issues at stake that often go unaddressed and demonstrates that victims of disaster do not remain passive.

Governing Disasters

Governing Disasters PDF Author: Shahla F. Ali
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107106397
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Drawing on international, state and private sector case studies and a global survey, this book examines local engagement in disaster relief.

The Social Roots of Risk

The Social Roots of Risk PDF Author: Kathleen Tierney
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804791406
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
“This book about risk and disaster—and how they get amplified—is fascinating and hugely important as we face an ever-more-turbulent world.” —Rebecca Solnit, award-winning author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a remarkable number of large-scale disasters. Earthquakes in Haiti and Sumatra underscored the serious economic consequences that catastrophic events can have on developing countries, while 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina showed that first world nations remain vulnerable. The Social Roots of Risk argues against the widespread notion that cataclysmic occurrences are singular events, driven by forces beyond our control. Instead, Kathleen Tierney contends that disasters of all types—be they natural, technological, or economic—are rooted in common social and institutional sources. Put another way, risks and disasters are produced by the social order itself—by governing bodies, organizations, and groups that push for economic growth, oppose risk-reducing regulation, and escape responsibility for tremendous losses when they occur. Considering a wide range of historical and looming events—from a potential mega-earthquake in Tokyo that would cause devastation far greater than what we saw in 2011, to BP’s accident history prior to the 2010 blowout—Tierney illustrates trends in our behavior, connecting what seem like one-off events to illuminate historical patterns. Like risk, human resilience also emerges from the social order, and this book makes a powerful case that we already have a significant capacity to reduce the losses that disasters produce. A provocative rethinking of the way that we approach and remedy disasters, The Social Roots of Risk leaves readers with a better understanding of how our own actions make us vulnerable to the next big crisis—and what we can do to prevent it. “Brilliant . . . Drawing on a trove of timely case studies, Tierney analyses how factors such as speculative finance and rampant development allow natural and economic blips to tip more easily into catastrophe.” —Nature

Governing after Crisis

Governing after Crisis PDF Author: Arjen Boin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521712446
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The constant threat of crises such as disasters, riots and terrorist attacks poses a frightening challenge to Western societies and governments. While the causes and dynamics of these events have been widely studied, we know little about what happens following their containment and the restoration of stability. This volume explores 'post-crisis politics,' examining how crises give birth to longer term dynamic processes of accountability and learning which are characterised by official investigations, blame games, political manoeuvring, media scrutiny and crisis exploitation. Drawing from a wide range of contemporary crises, including Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the Madrid train bombings, the Walkerton water contamination, Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia and the Boxing Day Asian tsunami, this is a ground-breaking volume which addresses the longer term impact of crisis-induced politics. Competing pressures for stability and change mean that policies, institutions and leaders may occasionally be uprooted, but often survive largely intact.

A Safer Future

A Safer Future PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309045460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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Book Description
Initial priorities for U.S. participation in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, declared by the United Nations, are contained in this volume. It focuses on seven issues: hazard and risk assessment; awareness and education; mitigation; preparedness for emergency response; recovery and reconstruction; prediction and warning; learning from disasters; and U.S. participation internationally. The committee presents its philosophy of calls for broad public and private participation to reduce the toll of disasters.

Governing Access to Essential Resources

Governing Access to Essential Resources PDF Author: Katharina Pistor
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540760
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Essential resources do more than satisfy people's needs. They ensure a dignified existence. Since the competition for essential resources, particularly fresh water and arable land, is increasing and standard legal institutions, such as property rights and national border controls, are strangling access to resources for some while delivering prosperity to others, many are searching for ways to ensure their fair distribution. This book argues that the division of essential resources ought to be governed by a combination of Voice and Reflexivity. Voice is the ability of social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed. Reflexivity is the opportunity to question one's own preferences in light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective learning process. Having investigated the allocation of essential resources in places as varied as Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Laos, Morocco, Nepal, the arid American West, and peri-urban areas in West Africa, the contributors to this volume largely concur with the viability of this policy and normative framework. Drawing on their expertise in law, environmental studies, anthropology, history, political science, and economics, they weigh the potential of Voice and Reflexivity against such alternatives as pricing mechanisms, property rights, common resource management, political might, or brute force.