Reducing People?s Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: Communities and Resilience

The concepts vulnerability, resilience and community are widely used and abused in the literature on natural hazards and disaster risk reduction. This paper seeks to bring greater rigour in their use. In particular, vulnerability must be understood as a set of socioeconomic conditions that are identifiable in relation to particular hazard risks, and therefore perform a predictive role that can assist in risk reduction. Resilience is often confused as a concept, sometimes seen as the inverse of vulnerability, and by others as an independent quality. These confusions may be especially relevant in the context of §policy for disaster risk reduction at the scale of community. Here there is often an idealized notion of community as undifferentiated and unproblematic. Vulnerability (to natural hazards) should be understood in the context of the individual and household as being composed of five (interacting) components: livelihood, base-line status, self-protection, social protection, and governance. The paper highlights the key problems associated with disconnections between these that result in rising vulnerability. In particular, it examines vulnerability in the context of the current expansion of interest in community based disaster preparedness (or management). For this to be effective, a clear analysis is essential of the relations between disaster preparedness and governance, especially the way that power operates at the community level. The ways in which community can operate to support, undermine or be irrelevant to disaster preparedness are analysed. It concludes by suggesting the conditions that are required for community to have any real significance as a component of risk reduction.household analysis, political economy, economic development, vulnerability, resilience, community, natural hazards, disaster

The Characteristics of Primitivism in Ernest Hemingway's the Old Man and the Sea

Authors of any periods unconsciously tend to explore the sublimity and free expression of feeling, the simplicity of style and themes, the portrayal of the 'noble savage', the glorification of nature, the excitement of physical power and sensuous use of language. These are the characteristics of primitivism, the celebration of an earlier stage of human development, which is uncorrupted, vigorous, genuine expression of life. Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea clearly depicts the characteristics of primitivism as seen in the portrayal of its main character, Santiago. Hemingway's regret on the impact of technology led him to write the novella with its hero who is depicted with the qualities of being a true hero, a winner 'who takes nothing' ; a 'noble savage' with great courage of physical action while dealing with nature. Santiago has become the portrayal of Hemingway's criticism toward the development of civilization and the urban way of life

Motives for Idealizing the Pragmatic

None available

A Look Back at the Ehrenfest Classification. Translation and Commentary of Ehrenfest's 1933 paper introducing the notion of phase transitions of different order

A translation of Paul Ehrenfest's 1933 paper, entitled "Phase transitions in the usual and generalized sense, classified according to the singularities of the thermodynamic potential" is presented. Some historical commentary about the paper's context is also given.Comment: 13p

Walking and Wandering: Reconstructing Diasporic Subjectivity in T. C. Huo\u27s Land of Smiles and Lê Thi Diem Thúy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For

Diaspora has often been defined as the condition of dispersal and displacement in which its members express minimal connections with their host country and always look to return to their ancestral homelands. However, from the literary representations in T. C. Huo’s Land of Smiles and Lê Thi Diem Thúy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For, it is clear that members of the Southeast Asian diaspora determine to set root in their host country and refuse to be treated as temporary guests. This determination is warranted by their desire to redefine the contentious idea of home beyond cultural ancestry and geopolitical boundaries. Both authors utilize the trope of walking and wandering to debunk the essentialist conception based on the premise that one’s subjectivity is static, especially when it applies to diasporic members’ supposed sense of homelessness and the longing to return to their native countries. Rather than perpetuating the systemic labels onto diasporic members, such as homelessness, passivity, and powerlessness, through walking and wandering, the Southeast Asian refugees in the novels demonstrate the psychosomatic connections with their host country, take part in the pursuit of success, and declare an active, visible presence in their new homeland as fervent subjects who embrace opportunities to obtain material security in the United States

On Their Own Ground: Strategies of Resistance for Sunni Muslim Women

Drawing from work in feminist moral philosophy, Tobin argues that the most common methodology used in practical ethics is a questionable methodology for addressing practical problems across diverse cultural contexts because the kind of impartiality it requires is neither feasible nor desirable. She then defends an alternative methodology for practical ethics in a global context and uses her proposed methodology to evaluate a problem that confronts many Sunni Muslim women around the world

Motives for Idealizing the Pragmatic

None available