Tuesday, September 16, 2014

September Group Updates

Group Represented at IDRC2014 and Building Resilience 2014

Drs Brewer, Giggins and von Meding recently travelled to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the International Disaster Risk Conference 2014. The group hosted a special session on slow-onset disasters and participated widely in sessions and the poster exhibition area.

Drs Thayaparan and Brewer just returned from the International Building Resilience Conference 2014, in Salford, UK, where they presented work from the research group and officially announced that UoN will host the 2015 Building Resilience Conference from 15-17 July 2015. Abstracts are due by 1st December 2014.


Project News

The REACT Network will formally convene in China in October, when Drs Brewer, Thayaparan and Kanjanabootra travel to Beijing along with delegates from Ming Chuan University. Beijing Normal University will host and facilitate a range of activities during the 1 week visit.

We are also pleased to announce that Dr Mackee and Dr von Meding were recently successful in obtaining $21,500 for a proposal entitled 'Disaster resilience and professional practice in developing countries: The Chinese Experience' as part of the UoN Student Mobility Scheme. This project will enable Master of Disaster Preparedness and Reconstruction students to undertake travel to China in 2015.


New PhD Scholars

In the past few months, the group has welcomed two new doctoral students to the team. Dieu Chinh Luu is a lecturer at the National University of Civil Engineering in Hanoi, Vietnam, and has commenced work on a project investigating the relationship of the hydropower industry in Vietnam to national flood risk mitigation. Giuseppe Forino arrives from Italy to undertake a second PhD (a glutton for punishment) and will be studying the role of the minerals sector in the governance of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. 


Sunday, September 7, 2014

cfp Book Abstract: DEMOCRACY, DISASTERS & GOVERNANCE Sara Bonati, Lina M. Calandra, Giuseppe Forino

Dear researchers and practitioners,

Routledge has called for a new research book series on Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate Change, edited by Ilan Kelman. It seeks (co-)authored and (co-)edited proposals that should, ideally, contain contributions from a range of geographic locations.  Proposals should involve well-established scholars, investigating the links between hazards, disasters and climate change.

Sara Bonati, Lina M. Calandra and Giuseppe Forino have prepared a draft proposal entitled Disaster, Democracy and Governance, as you will see below. In order to ensure an effective proposal to the publisher, we plan to also submit a potential chapter outline of the book. Therefore, we are requesting that scholars potentially interested in contributing a chapter to the upcoming edited book would register their interest.

At this stage we cannot guarantee that our proposal will be accepted for publication. However, we are confident that the support of expert authors will add significant value to the proposal in this important research area. If you are genuinely interested in an eventual participation in our edited book, we will be very happy to consider your manuscript.

We ask you to suggest: a) a potential title of your contribution; b) the Section your contribution could be part of; c) a short abstract (about 200-300 words) with a description of aims, methodology and expected results.
The deadline for proposals is September 30th. Once the book outline proposal is (hopefully) accepted, we will contact you asking to submit your full original chapter in about 6 months.

We hope the initial time investment in this proposal would be relatively small, as you may already have drafts ready. We look forward to working with you. Please direct all inquiries regarding Disaster, Democracy and Governance and your abstract proposal to sara.bonati@gmail.com, g.forino@gmail.com, lina.calandra@cc.univaq.it.

Best wishes,
Sara, Lina and Giuseppe

*Book Abstract: DEMOCRACY, DISASTERS & GOVERNANCE
Sara Bonati, Lina M. Calandra, Giuseppe Forino

This is an invited, edited volume from scholars across all disciplines engaging with multidisciplinary articulations of disaster management. It analyses theoretically, empirically and critically the interdependence among democracy, disasters and governance, and includes worldwide case studies.

According to Beck’s theory on “risk society”, local and global dynamics are intertwined, and contribute to frame new social, environmental and political risks in future scenarios of places and countries. Within this context, local communities are requiring new mitigation, adaptation and resilience processes in disasters. Based on these statements, recognizing the strict link of disaster management with democracy implies also to reflect on the emergence of governance strategies able to integrate local communities in the governing of places. In order to highlight the most recent trends in disaster studies, the volume asks for contributions that critically analyse and discuss local, integrative and inclusive strategies of disaster management.

Section A of this book investigates the theoretical and conceptual framing of the complex relationships among democracy and disasters. According to Amartya Sen’s assumption that “a country does not have to be deemed fit for democracy; rather, it has to become fit through democracy”, this section discusses if and how the “democratisation” of disaster management can contribute to increase its effectiveness, and if and how disaster management can strengthen or neglect the democratic functioning of local systems.

Section B focuses on the multiple models of risk and disaster governance. It explores multi-scalar and multi-level approaches to governance, as well as discussing strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of multi-stakeholders approaches, inclusiveness and participation processes, and the role of democracy in the governance of disasters.

Section C is mainly empirical and investigates significant worldwide case studies, which refer to the exchange of experiences between local and scientific communities and to community-led and place-based approaches.