After the Rain – learning the lessons from flood recovery in Hull

The report shows that it is often not so much the floods themselves, but what comes afterwards, that people find so difficult to deal with. The research on which this report is based aimed to undertake a real-time longitudinal study to document and understand the everyday experiences of individuals following the floods of June 2007 in interaction with networks of actors and organisations, strategies of institutional support and investment in the built environment and infrastructure. It had the following objectives: - To identify and document key dimensions of the longer term experience of flood impact and flood recovery, including health, economic and social aspects. - To examine how resilience and vulnerability were manifest in the interaction between everyday strategies of adaptation during the flood recovery process, and modes of institutional support and the management of infrastructure and the built environment. -To explore to what extent the recovery process entailed the development of new forms of resilience and to identify the implications for developing local level resilience for flood recovery in the future. To develop an archive that will be accessible for future research into other aspects of flood recovery. The flooding which affected the city of Kingston-upon-Hull took place in June 2007. Over 110mm of rain fell during the biggest event, overwhelming the city‟s drainage system and resulting in widespread pluvial flooding. The floods affected over 8,600 households and one person was killed. Our research used in-depth, qualitative methods where 44 people kept weekly diaries and participated in interviews and group discussions over an 18-month period

Designing behaviourally informed policies for land stewardship: A new paradigm

This paper argues the case for a new approach to the stewardship of land resources that uses behavioural science theory to support the design and application of policies that facilitate changes in behaviour by those who develop policy and the farmers who implement it. Current approaches have: focused on legally-based expert system; and have been devised by national and international bureaucracies with little or no knowledge of how land owners and managers are motivated, and how they think, behave and operate as stewards of their natural resources. A review of current approaches from the social scientific literature is provided, with a particular focus on principles from social psychology. This is followed by an examination of how these principles can be applied to influence behaviour related to land restoration and soil conservation. Examples of the problems with traditional approaches and the evolution of new approaches with full engagement of farmers as the delivery agents are provided from within the European Union, Iceland and Scotland. In the light of these examples and emerging thinking in other parts of the world, the paper sets out the basis for a new approach based on behavioural science theory and application, reinforcing the arguments already made in the literature for a social license for farming

Organizing as Improvisations (Methodological Temptations of Social Constructivism)

Academic communities in social sciences are still dominated byneo-positivist paradigm, but communities of practice developing socialconstructivism have started to redress paradigmatic imbalances.According to the latter man-made organizational reality is processualand saturated with sensemaking (Weick). Social constructivistssucceeded in reconstructing complex organizational disasters andcontributed to organizational innovation and change (for instance inthe wake of ICT challenges). They belong to postmodernist critics ofmodernity's failure to regulate social development and contribute to abetter understanding of organizing (e.g. implementing a new technologyor managing knowledge production) as patchworking and improvising. Inspite of discriminating practices, they survive in academiccommunities.critical theory;managerialism;improvisation;relativism;social constructivism

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

Disability and disaster recovery: a tale of two cities?

This paper examines the connections between disability and disaster from a global perspective. Concepts from the research and policy literature are used to distinguish between individual and social models of disability, and between natural hazards and human disasters. These concepts are then employed to investigate data on the response to disabled people’s recovery needs in two recent case studies: the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. The analysis combines primary, secondary and tertiary sources to explore disability issues in the reconstruction of inclusive communities and the lessons that may be learned about disaster preparedness in poor communities. The conclusions suggest that more attention should be paid to social model approaches, particularly in understand global links with poverty, and that disabled people’s organisations should be resourced as agents of disaster recovery and preparedness

Affection not affliction: The role of emotions in information systems and organizational change

Most IS research in both the technical/rational and socio-technical traditions ignores or marginalizes the emotionally charged behaviours through which individuals engage in, and cope with the consequences of, IS practice and associated organizational change. Even within the small body of work that engages with emotions through particular conceptual efforts, affections are often conceived as a phenomenon to be eradicated – an affliction requiring a cure. In this paper, I argue that emotions are always implicated in our lived experiences, crucially influencing how we come to our beliefs about what is good or bad, right or wrong. I draw from the theoretical work of Michel Foucault to argue for elaborating current notions of IS innovation as a moral and political struggle in which individuals’ beliefs and feelings are constantly tested. Finally, I demonstrate these ideas by reference to a case study that had considerable emotional impact, and highlight the implications for future work

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

The Leading Journal in the Field: Destabilizing Authority in the Social Sciences of Management

217 p. : il , 20 x 13 cm.Libro ElectrónicoI am often told, “Don’t waste your time reading books, you’d be better off reading the leading journals in your field.” Unfortunately, the authors of this book have closely read some of those articles: examining arguments, with simple principles and words, plus a touch of irony – and a shared belief in ideas and debates. The suspicions that we all have in a part of our head appears in its ugly nakedness: what is this social game that authors in leading management journals play? What grants them their truth effects? This is a book that one should read the day one enters the academic field; and then regularly thereafter so as not to forget.’ Professor Jean-Luc Moriceau, Telecom Business School (France)"A menudo me dijo:" No pierda su tiempo leyendo libros, que sería mejor que la lectura de las revistas líderes en su campo. "Desafortunadamente, los autores de este libro han leído muy de cerca algunos de esos artículos: el examen de los argumentos, con principios simples y palabras, además de un toque de ironía - y la creencia compartida de ideas y debates. Las sospechas de que todos tenemos en una parte de la cabeza aparece en su fea desnudez: ¿qué es este juego social que los autores de revistas líder en gestión de jugar? Lo que les dé efectos de verdad? Este es un libro que uno debe leer el día se entra en el campo académico, y luego periódicamente a partir de entonces, para no olvidar ". Profesor Jean-Luc Moriceau , Telecom Business School (Francia)Contributors vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Towards a Clinical Study of Finance: The DeAngelos and the Redwoods 9 3 Marientbal At Work 35 4 ‘Lessons for Managers and Consultants’: A Reading of Edgar H. Schein’s Process Consultation 61 5 Multiple Failures of Scholarship: Karl Weick and the Mann Gulch Disaster 85 6 The ‘Nature of Man’ and the Science of Organization 103 7 Performativity: From J.L. Austin to Judith Butler 119 8 Four Close Readings on Introducing the Literary in Organizational Research 143 9 From Bourgeois Sociology to Managerial Apologetics: A Tale of Existential Struggle 16