[Radix] RE: Radix Digest, Vol 109, Issue 1

Wed Feb 25 20:31:57 PST 2009

Hi Brian,

I am regular reader of radix. I am working in Disaster Preparedness in India. I am also postgrad in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development from University of Northumbria, UK. 

What I learnt from your mail is that you are looking for Disaster preparedness among minority groups in USA. I am not sure how much help it would if you get to know disaster preparedness among minority communities in India.

There are lot of literature available.

Thanks,

Subhrakali

Lutheran World Service India.

Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:10 -0800
From: radix-request at ecie.org
Subject: Radix Digest, Vol 109, Issue 1
To: radix at ecie.org

Send Radix mailing list submissions to
	radix at ecie.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://ecie.org/mailman/listinfo/radix
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	radix-request at ecie.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
	radix-owner at ecie.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Radix digest..."

--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: brmcadoo at vassar.edu
To: radix at ecie.org
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:45:49 -0800
Subject: [Radix] Disaster Preparedness in Minority Communities?

Colleagues,

I am curious if anyone has information regarding disaster preparedness in
marginalized communities?  

In the USA, these communities more often then not are minority
communities, as dramatically illustrated by Hurricane Katrina. 
There is a great deal of concern here in the San Francisco (California)
Bay Area about an inevitable earthquake on the Heyward fault, which runs
directly underneath the heavily populated communities of Berkeley and
Oakland.  While there is a lot of work being done to raise awareness
of this hazard, I am not aware of any efforts deliberately targeting
minority communities, and I worry that because of their marginalization,
they will be overlooked.

Is there an academic literature out there looking into racial/ethnic
demographics and disaster preparedness?  I imagine that there might
be some related to indigenous knowledge, but again I expose my ignorance
here.

Thank you for your help.

Brian

Brian G. McAdoo

Blaustein Visiting Professor

Stanford University

473 Via Ortega, Rm 139

Stanford, CA  94305-4215

650.721.2398 (office)

845.249.9561 (mobile)

Associate Professor of Earth Science

Department of Earth Science and Geography

Box 735

Vassar College

Poughkeepsie, NY  12604

On leave at Stanford University

July 2008-July 2009

ü
Please consider the
environment before printing this email.

--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: ilan_kelman at hotmail.com
To: radix at ecie.org
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:51:00 +0000
Subject: RE: [Radix] Disaster Preparedness in Minority Communities?‏

Dear Brian (and Radix):

Your email covers several topics simultaneously, all with their own literature.  I provide some illustrative (far from comprehensive) examples for each:

(i) Disaster-related activities in "marginalized" communities.

Some researchers object to the term "marginalized", but there are, of course, many definitions and interpretations of it.  The example that is of most interest to me is islands, often termed "small islands" or "small, isolated islands", for which material is available at http://www.islandvulnerability.org  As well, a book by James Lewis http://developmentbookshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=463 discusses aspects of proportional impact / proportional vulnerability, setting up a useful theoretical foundation for examining the vulnerability of marginalized people, of marginalized places, or of marginalized people in marginalized places, each of which again represents its own discourse.  James Lewis' work http://datum.gn.apc.org is particularly relevant to islands and other isolated locations which are often considered to be or labelled as "marginal" or "peripheral"

(ii) Disaster-related activities to assist minority communities or minorities in communities.

One of the extensive discourses on this topic relates to power structures,
empowerment, and vulnerability.  Ken Hewitt, Ben Wisner, Terry Cannon, and Tony Oliver-Smith have contributed extensively to research and practice on this topic.  See, for example:

Hewitt K. (ed.), Interpretations of Calamity from the Viewpoint of Human Ecology, Allen & Unwin, London (1983)

Hewitt K., Preventable Disasters: Addressing Social Vulnerability, Institutional Risk, and Civil Ethics,  Geographisches Rundscahu: International Edition, 3(1), 43-52 (2007)

Oliver-Smith T., The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM (1986)

Wisner, B. "Disaster Vulnerability: Scale, Power, and Daily Life." Geojournal 30,2, pp. 127-140.

Wisner B., Blaikie P., Cannon T. and Davis I., At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters, 2nd ed., Routledge, London (2004)

All this work is highly relevant to and certainly needed for point (i) too and it has been applied to minorities, marginalisation, and indiginous eity by authors such as Jean-Christophe
Gaillard http://jc.gaillard.monsite.orange.fr and Jessica Mercer (see (iv) below) amongst others.

(iii) Disaster-related activities for minorities in urban areas.

A fascinating project is the "Geography of Urban Social Vulnerability" http://geic.hq.unu.edu/env/project1.cfm?type=1&ID=28 and http://www.unu.edu/env/urban/social-vulnerability/index.htm  For the case studies that you mention, Los Angeles "There are worse things than earthquakes" might be apposite.

(iv) Disaster-related activities and indigenous knowledge.

Aside from your own contributions on this topic, go to http://www.riskred.org/favourites.html and click on "Indigenous
knowledge" for some links.

(v) For specific publications addressing "racial/ethnic demographics and disaster preparedness" in urban settings see http://www.docuticker.com/?p=21705 /
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6651771/Disaster-Preparedness-in-Urban-Immigrant-Communities for southern California (however, I have not read this document, so I cannot judge it or advocate that it is appropriate) and also http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=5782 (e.g. pp. 122-125) for the USA.

For all the above, aside from the Katrina literature that you mention along with the tsunami literature that you know already, the Gender and Disaster Network http://www.gdnonline.org along with Radix itself http://www.radixonline.org will have other relevant resources.  I hope that some of this material covers what you are seeking.  With best wishes,

Ilan

_________________________________________________________________
The new Windows Live Messenger. You don’t want to miss this.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/products/messenger.aspx

_________________________________________________________________
Chose your Life Partner! Join MSN Matrimony FREE
http://www.in.msn.com/matrimony
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.ecie.org/pipermail/radix/attachments/20090226/06e9c1f6/attachment.htm