Gendered risk engagement: challenging the embedded vulnerability, social norms and power relations in conventional Australian bushfire education

Building on an identified need for gender-sensitive approaches to bushfire risk engagement, this paper examines outreach initiatives specifically targeting women\u27s bushfire awareness and preparedness in southeast Australia. The results of an online survey, together with two workshops with community engagement staff and volunteers from rural fire services, convey perceived aids and obstacles for engaging women. Efforts at engaging women with bushfire risk management are shown to align squarely with efforts to create a more gender-balanced and gender-sensitive environment for bushfire brigade volunteers. The paper demonstrates how gender roles and gendered norms are reinforced by the patriarchal structures that shape everyday life and the on-the-ground application of official outreach policy and practice. This, in turn, results in heightened dimensions of gendered vulnerability to bushfire. Three key pointers to more successful engagement emerge from the analysis: the benefits of hands-on experience and practice, the strength of networks and the imperative of supportive learning environments

Gendered dimensions of Aboriginal Australian and California Indian fire knowledge retention and revival

Fire has played a key role in the land management practices of Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans for millennia. However, colonial interests have disrupted indigenous use of fire in multiple ways. This article summarises how gender is entwined—spatially and temporally— in the adaptive knowledge trajectories through which some Aboriginal Australian and California Indian fire knowledge is retained and revived. The article draws on oral narratives shared by indigenous elders, cultural practitioners, and land stewards during prescribed burns, fire knowledge workshops, field trips with students, informal conversations and audio-recorded interviews

Coexisting with wildfire: strengthening collective capacity by changing the status quo

This article is the fuller written version of the invited closing plenary given by the author at the 10th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress. The article provides a consideration of our capacity to cope, care, and coexist in a fiery world from a social and structural point of view. It focuses on privilege as the root cause of a long and troublesome history within the wildfire profession of not valuing all generational knowledge equally, not treating all cultures with the same respect, not embracing diversity and inclusion, and not affording the same status to all disciplines and voices. The article argues that we can strengthen our collective capacity to coexist with wildfire by embracing local and indigenous fire stewardship practices, by enabling workforce diversity and inclusive leadership culture, and by providing sustainable working conditions for wildland firefighters. To do so requires individual and collective noticing of what is wrong, and everyday action steps towards equity

Fire, water and everyday life: bushfire and household defence in a changing climate

This paper examines how the availability or scarcity of water influenced the survival related decisions of households during the October 2013 State Mine Fire in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. Narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 18 households impacted by the bushfire revealed that drought conditions in the months preceding the bushfire left many households dependent on non-reticulated water supplies vulnerable at the time the fire threat became apparent. Despite considerable preparations for water storage and usage during the fire, weak links in planning (e.g., top-ups, failure of pumps, generators and hoses) meant water was not accessible when needed most. This paper discusses a gap in bushfire safety scholarship on water usage and everyday trade-offs amongst residents in areas independent of reticulated (mains) water supplies. Findings suggest a need for more detailed and consistent information in official bushfire safety advice on storing water prior to a bushfire and effective water distribution systems for household defence and fire fighting

Geographical fire research in Australia: Review and prospects

\u27You live in the bush. You live by the rules of the bush, and that\u27s it.\u27 These were the reflective words of Mrs Dunlop upon seeing the blackened rubble of her home, which made headline news the morning after the first, and most destructive, fire front tore through the Blue Mountains in New South Wales on 17 October 2013 (Partridge and Levy, 2013). While seemingly a simple statement, it goes right to the heart of heated public and political debates - past and present - over who belongs where and why in the fire-prone landscapes that surround Australia\u27s cities. Bushfire is a constant and ongoing part of Australian history, ecology and culture. The love of a sunburnt country, the beauty and terror of fire, and the filmy veil of post-fire greenness described in the century-old poem \u27Core of My Heart\u27 (Mackellar, 1908) are still apt depictions of Australian identity today. Yet longer fire seasons and an increase in extreme fire weather days with climate change add both uncertainty and urgency to Australia\u27s ability to coexist with fire in the future (Head et al., 2013)

Understanding the root causes of natural disasters

Every year disasters take lives, cause significant damage, inhibit development and contribute to conflict and forced migration. Unfortunately, the trend is an upward one. In May 2017, policy-makers and disaster management experts from over 180 countries gathered in Cancun, Mexico, to discuss ways to counter this trend. In the middle of the Cancun summit, news arrived that large parts of Sri Lanka were devastated by floods and landslides, killing at least 150 and displacing almost half a million people. Email Twitter68 Facebook52 LinkedIn21 Print Every year disasters take lives, cause significant damage, inhibit development and contribute to conflict and forced migration. Unfortunately, the trend is an upward one. In May 2017, policy-makers and disaster management experts from over 180 countries gathered in Cancun, Mexico, to discuss ways to counter this trend. In the middle of the Cancun summit, news arrived that large parts of Sri Lanka were devastated by floods and landslides, killing at least 150 and displacing almost half a million people. It was a stark reminder of the summit participants\u27 challenging task of paving the way towards reducing disaster losses significantly by the year 2030 based on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Adopted in 2015, the Sendai Framework outlines seven targets and four priorities for action to prevent new, and reduce existing, disaster risks to economic, physical, social, cultural, health or environmental assets and lives of persons, businesses, communities and countries. Since then, in China, a village in the Sichuan province has been devastated by a landslide and rescuers are still looking for missing people

Engaging with the (un)familiar: field teaching in a multi-campus teaching environment

Field trips have long been central to geography, but have been subject to assessment of the role of the \u27field\u27 in teaching. At the same time, academics face barriers to running field trips. Distance education and enhanced educational access for non-metropolitan students represented such an obstacle at an Australian university. These obstacles were taken as an opportunity to draw on the regional nature of the students and staff to enhance teaching goals, run critically informed field trips by and manage academic workloads. We evaluate the field trips by conducting surveys and interviews with students and tutors, and as an example of innovation within constraints

Into the firing line: civilian ingress during the 2013 Red October bushfires, Australia

A major issue for bushfire management arises when residents decide to leave a safe area and enter the fire zone to rescue or defend their property, pets, loved ones or other assets. Here, we use statistical and narrative analyses of data from an online survey and semi-structured interviews with residents affected by the 2013 Red October bushfires in New South Wales, Australia. The survey results revealed that of the 58 % of respondents who were not at home at the time the threat became apparent, 65 % indicated that they attempted to get home prior to the arrival of the fire front. In doing so, many endangered themselves, their family, friends and emergency services personnel. This paper discusses the shortcomings of bushfire survival plans and official risk communication, which do not cater well for household units that are divided or unattended when a bushfire starts. Findings suggest that to enhance bushfire safety and preparedness, emergency managers should acknowledge and speak more directly to the specific constraints to action for particular social groups at the wildland-urban interface, including families with school-age children, commuters and absentee landholders

Making cyber security more resilient: adding social considerations to technological fixes

How can a focus on socio-technical vulnerability and uncertainty make cyber security more resilient? In this article, we provide a conceptual discussion of how to increase cyber resilience. First, we show how cyber security and resilience thinking co-evolved through their connection to critical infrastructures, and how the ensuing dominant technical focus inevitably always falls short due to the diverse societal values that underpin their critical social functions. We argue that a sole focus on aggregate systems neglects the important differences in how cyber threats are experienced and dealt with by individuals. Second, we draw on insights from social resilience and disaster management literature to establish a better link between individuals and cyber systems. We focus on two key aspects of cyber security that highlight its social nature: vulnerability and uncertainty. Instead of thinking of cyber security as a “technical problem + humans,” we suggest cyber security should be conceptualized as a “social problem + technology.” We conclude by highlighting three ways forward for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners: interdisciplinary research, public debate about a set of normative questions, and the need for an uncertainty discourse in politics and policymaking

Språkvansker i barnehagen. Hvordan barnehagelærere avdekker tegn til språkvansker

Denne studien handler om språkvansker, og tar for seg barnehagelæreres praksis rundt å avdekke tegn til språkvansker hos barn i barnehagen. Studien tar sikte på å belyse noen barnehagelæreres tanker og erfaringer rundt dette temaet. I oppgavens teorigrunnlag presenteres aktuell teori og forskning om språkutvikling og språkvansker hos barn, blant annet kjennetegn for språklig utviklingsforstyrrelse (spesifikke språkvansker) og dysleksi. Videre trekkes barnehagens arbeid med språk og identifisering av språkvansker inn, og debatt rundt kartlegging blir også omtalt. I denne studien er det benyttet kvalitativ forskningsmetode. Utvalget består av fem pedagoger som alle har barnehagelærerutdannelse, og arbeider i ulike barnehager. For innhenting av data er det benyttet semistrukturert intervju. Her ble pedagogene blant annet spurt om hvordan de arbeider med språk og hva de gjør ved mistanke om språkvansker hos barn, samt spørsmål knyttet til kompetanse om språkvansker. Det kommer frem i funnene at informantene i stor grad benytter seg av kunnskap basert på erfaring fra arbeid med mange barn i barnehagealder, samt teoretisk kunnskap, når det gjelder å avdekke tegn til språkvansker hos barn. Informantene forteller om et fokus på språk som står sentral gjennom hele barnehagedagen. Betydningen av et godt foreldresamarbeid trekkes frem som avgjørende, særlig i tilfeller hvor barnet har behov for ekstra oppfølging og støtte. Informantene ga også flere beskrivelser av deres forståelse av begrepet språkvansker som samsvarer med det teoretiske grunnlaget. Samtidig var det betydningsfulle momenter knyttet til språkvansker som ikke ble omtalt i like stor grad. Det var enighet blant samtlige informanter om at det er behov for økt kompetanse i barnehagen om temaet språkvansker