'The divine hierarchy': the social and institutional elements of vulnerability in South India

Studies over the last twenty years show that understanding the social and economic forces that govern societies and create vulnerability should have the same emphasis as understanding the physical causes of vulnerability. This enquiry investigates what social networks and institutions are available (created or imposed) to people that enable them to cope with large scale crises, such as tropical cyclones, and 'everyday' problems such as poverty and illness. The social institutions prevalent in villages in coastal Andhra Pradesh, South India, have been assessed regarding which variables appear to be the most and least successful in contributing to the reduction of people's vulnerability and aiding the coping mechanisms of individuals and households. Using a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from over 300 respondents in twelve villages, enabling an assessment to be made of each respondent's access to resources as indicators of levels of poverty, marginalisation, resilience and social power. Data was obtained using questionnaires, village cartographic surveys, sociograms and semi-structured interviews. The sociograms used throughout this research were developed during the fieldwork. They were adapted to suit the requirements of the research focus and thereby facilitate the assessment of the types and strengths of social networks used by the respondents in both 'everyday' and 'crisis' situations. A contextual analysis was conducted to locate concepts such as 'community' and 'risk' within the discourse appropriate to the respondents. From this analysis it became apparent that the village level respondents perceive risk in terms of recurring 'everyday' occurrences such as low crop yields and the lack of basic needs, and not high impact but infrequently occurring events such as tropical cyclones or floods. The village level respondents, government officials and NGO employees typically perceive the concept of 'community' as defined by caste classifications. The main variable explaining access to resources is caste. Caste is the dominant social institution that influences social networks and hence (with poverty) levels of vulnerability. This is because it not only influences levels of vulnerability directly, through levels of poverty, but also restricts the ability of some respondents to change their circumstances through enduring caste-defined inequalities with regards to accessing the resources that might help them to reduce their levels of vulnerability. Given this fording, and because caste is not predominately an economic phenomenon, vulnerability reduction initiatives that focus on economic advancement alone are unlikely to usurp patterns of caste discrimination and thereby are unlikely to reduce endemic levels of vulnerability for the most vulnerable members of society: they are treating symptoms, not causes. In contrast, social networks are also important: while the 'lower' castes are the most marginalised, powerless and poorest members of the case study areas they attempt to address this by accessing socio-economic resources that can, and marginally do, increase their resilience to frequent small scale crises, typically via social networks with informal social institutions such as NGOs, CBOs and kinship networks. In view of the dearth in empirical evidence associated to inequalities related to caste in rural India, this thesis adds to the limited contemporary evidence that suggests that caste defined disparities persist. Consequently, practitioners involved in vulnerability reduction need to gain a better understanding of the communities and the `political realities' in which they operate, so that future interventions will be better targeted and ultimately be more appropriate and sustainable that they have been in the past

An Explorative Review of Copyright Education: Studies and Resources

Copyright education is a contested field characterised by disagreements about definitions and aims. The present report seeks to identify and map current debates about copyright education by surveying relevant literature. The paper identifies 10 distinct categories of copyright education discussed in research and scholarship about copyright. These categories include consumer education initiatives in the tradition of public warnings against criminal behaviour ‘You wouldn’t steal a handbag…’, studies of use of media materials by educators in classrooms, and debates about open access to knowledge in higher education. The paper closes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for future research about copyright education

The divine hierarchy: the social and institutional elements of vulnerability in south India

Studies over the last twenty years show that understanding the social and economic forces that govern societies and create vulnerability should have the same emphasis as understanding the physical causes of vulnerability. This enquiry investigates what social networks and institutions are available (created or imposed) to people that enable them to cope with large scale crises, such as tropical cyclones, and ‘everyday’ problems such as poverty and illness. The social institutions prevalent in villages in coastal Andhra Pradesh, south India, have been assessed regarding which variables appear to be the most and least successful in contributing to the reduction of people’s vulnerability and aiding the coping mechanisms of individuals and households.Using a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from over 300 respondents in twelve villages, enabling an assessment to be made of each respondent’s access to resources as indicators of levels of poverty, marginalisation, resilience and social power. Data was obtained using questionnaires, village cartographic surveys, sociograms and semi-structured interviews. The sociograms used throughout this research were developed during the fieldwork. They were adapted to suit the requirements of the research focus and thereby facilitate the assessment of the types and strengths of social networks used by the respondents in both ‘everyday’ and ‘crisis’ situations. A contextual analysis was conducted to locate concepts such as ‘community’ and ‘risk’ within the discourse appropriate to the respondents. From this analysis it became apparent that the village level respondents perceive risk in terms of recurring ‘everyday’ occurrences such as low crop yields and the lack of basic needs, and not high impact but infrequently occurring events such as tropical cyclones or floods. The village level respondents, government officials and NGO employees typically perceive the concept of ‘community’ as defined by caste classifications. The main variable explaining access to resources is caste. Caste is the dominant social institution that influences social networks and hence (with poverty) levels of vulnerability. This is because it not only influences levels of vulnerability directly, through levels of poverty, but also restricts the ability of some respondents to change their circumstances through enduring caste-defined inequalities with regards to accessing the resources that might help them to reduce their levels of vulnerability. Given this finding, and because caste is not predominately an economic phenomenon, vulnerability reduction initiatives that focus on economic advancement alone are unlikely to usurp patterns of caste discrimination and thereby are unlikely to reduce endemic levels of vulnerability for the most vulnerable members of society: they are treating symptoms, not causes. In contrast, social networks are also important: while the ‘lower’ castes are the most marginalised, powerless and poorest members of the case study areas they attempt to address this by accessing socio-economic resources that can, and marginally do, increase their resilience to frequent small scale crises, typically via social networks with informal social institutions such as NGOs, CBOs and kinship networks. In view of the dearth in empirical evidence associated to inequalities related to caste in rural India, this thesis adds to the limited contemporary evidence that suggests that caste defined disparities persist. Consequently, practitioners involved in vulnerability reduction need to gain a better understanding of the communities and the ‘political realities’ in which they operate, so that future interventions will be better targeted and ultimately be more appropriate and sustainable that they have been in the past

Household and governmental perceptions of risk: implications for the appropriateness of housing provision in South India

Disasters are increasing, affecting more people globally and imposing larger economic losses for affected areas. Typically, the poorest and most marginalised members of society are disproportionately affected by such events, impinging upon their ability to cope with everyday life and improve their socio-economic status. The outputs from a three-year project in Andhra Pradesh are presented, providing a context specific, but nonetheless important, insight into how risk perceptions can have an impact upon local development. By assessing the disparities between existing risks and the risk perceptions of householders, government and non-governmental officials, evidence is provided that questions the day-to-day suitability of the risk responses. The case study highlights limited risk management strategies due to inadequate availability of insurance cover in the villages while ultimately illustrating the pitfalls of ill-conceived and overly technocratic approaches to housing development

Techniques and Modes of Insertion

In this report, I intend to mention most of the methods of implantation of permanent pacemakers while indicating those methods which are currently favored

Built-in resilience through disaster risk reduction: operational issues

It has been argued that the broad range of people responsible for the delivery, operation and maintenance of the built environment need to become more proactively involved in making the built environment resilient to a wide range of known and unforeseen hazards and threats. Accordingly, the (actual and potential) roles of a wide range of stakeholders associated with the integration of Disaster Risk Reduction into the (re-)development of the built environment are examined. A review of literature, government data and interviews with key stakeholders in England, highlights that despite regulatory intentions to increase local resilience through the use of public and private sector stakeholders, a number of structural and operational obstacles exist. A range of strategies can be employed to overcome these obstacles: revisions to building codes, tightening planning policy, improving professional training, clarifying roles and missions, enabling complementary bottom-up and top-down approaches, and the provision of good practice guidance about the broad range of structural and non-structural risk reduction measures. Many of the operational challenges are non-structural and require a coherent, overarching strategy: changing and aligning the social understandings and practices in civil society, government and building environment stakeholders