From pity to fear: security as a mechanism for (re)production of vulnerability

Vulnerability is a shared basic condition but also a condition of potential. In the context of disasters and crises, the concept of vulnerability is often used to portray individuals and groups as ‘weak’, ‘threatened’ and ‘in need of help’. But occasionally a shift occurs and the ‘threatened’ - and therefore usually pitied - become those who are feared and hated, i.e., a ‘threat’. We explore how apparently incompatible discursive regimes of ‘threatened’ and ‘threat’ intertwine, merge and feed upon each other, and how vulnerability can be and is consequently securitised. We demonstrate that too often the freedoms and opportunities prescribed by the neoliberal state are impossible to actualise when ‘normality’ and therefore ‘otherness’ are also defined by the state, where people are first and foremost subjects of a global market. These considerations are critical if we are to truly reduce vulnerabilisation by focusing on justice

What we measure matters: the case of the missing development data in Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction monitoring

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030’s (SFDRR) framing moved away from disaster risk as a natural phenomenon to the examination of the inequality and injustice at the root of human vulnerability to hazards and disasters. Yet, its achievements have not seriously challenged the long-established capitalist systems of oppression that hinder the development leading to disaster risk creation. This article is an exploratory mapping exercise of and a collective reflection on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and SFDRR indicators¾and their use in measuring progress towards disaster risk reduction (DRR). We highlight that despite the rhetoric of vulnerability, the measurement of progress towards DRR remains event/hazard-centric. We argue that the measurement of disaster risk could be greatly enhanced by the integration of development data in future iterations of global DRR frameworks for action