'Building back better' is neoliberal post-disaster reconstruction

In the arena: contesting disaster creation in cities

Space is a feature of all disasters, and it is through decisions on how space is developed, used, and reproduced that disasters manifest themselves. Critical urban theory sees urban space-cities-as an arena of contestation expressed through the relationship between people, power, and the built environment. Cities allow for an unpacking of this process of contestation through the interpretation of various temporal, spatial, social, and physical elements that together create complex issues and 'wicked problems'. In these urban spaces in all their complexity, disasters reveal both the worst injustices and inequalities present in a society. By drawing on three well-known cases-Hurricane Katrina in 2010; the Haiti earthquake in 2010; and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011-this paper not only explores the opportunities that critical urban theory presents for gaining a deeper understanding of disaster risk creation, but also it encourages disaster scholars to engage with it.

International humanitarian narratives of disasters, crises, and Indigeneity

Narratives are a means of making sense of disasters and crises. The humanitarian sector communicates stories widely, encompassing representations of peoples and events. Such communications have been critiqued for misrepresenting and/or silencing the root causes of disasters and crises, depoliticising them. What has not been researched is how such communications represent disasters and crises in Indigenous settings. This is important because processes such as colonisation are often at the origin but are typically masked in communications. A narrative analysis of humanitarian communications is employed here to identify and characterise narratives in humanitarian communications involving Indigenous Peoples. Narratives differ based upon how the humanitarians who produce them think that disasters and crises should be governed. The paper concludes that humanitarian communications reflect more about the relationship between the international humanitarian community and its audience than reality, and underlines that narratives mask global processes that link audiences of humanitarian communications with Indigenous Peoples.

[Human Caring at Different Stages After Disasters]

Disasters, including natural disasters and man-made ones, occur rather frequently in recent years. Disasters bring destruction to the resources and expectations of local residents and cause varying degrees of physical and mental damage to the victims, some of whom suffered persistent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Human caring is the essence and core of nursing. Giving consideration to the needs and wishes of patients, the nursing staff respect the personal values of patients, give patients sincere attention and care, satisfy the reasonable needs of patients, protect the dignity of patients, stimulate patients' positive inner drive, alleviate their physical and mental pain, and facilitate the smooth recovery of patients. However, very few studies have been done to look into the human caring at various stages after a disaster hit and there is little relevant guidance available. Herein, we examined the characteristics and needs of victims of disasters in the post-disaster response stage and recovery stage and elaborated on specific and feasible measures for the implementation of human caring after disasters, including prehospital emergency care, which includes on-the-site emergency care and transportation of patients, in-hospital treatment, which includes an environment of human caring and human caring for patients and their families, especially for the special-needs populations, and post-hospital recovery stage, which includes post-hospital continuing and community-based human caring. We intend to provide guidance and reference for the practice of human caring when major disasters occur.

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

Vulnerability is not only a shared basic condition, but also a condition of potential. In the context of disasters and crises, the concept of vulnerability is frequently used to portray individuals and groups as 'weak', 'threatened', and 'in need of help'. Occasionally, though, a shift occurs and the 'threatened'-and therefore usually the pitied-become those who are feared and hated, that is, they become a 'threat'. This paper explores 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. It demonstrates that too often the freedoms and opportunities prescribed by the neoliberal state are impossible to actualise when 'normality' and hence '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 truly to reduce vulnerabilisation by focusing on justice.

The harmful legacy of colonialism in natural hazard risk

The colonial practices of geoscience have created long term vulnerabilities to natural hazards. In this comment the ongoing consequence are explored of colonialism as well as the actions that are needed to be taken to reduce natural hazard risk.

From hope to disappointment? Following the 'Taking Place' and 'Organisation' of hope in 'Building Back Better' from COVID-19

Rapid economic stimulus in response to COVID-19, typically based on 'shovel-ready' infrastructure, has opened up new political spaces of hope to 'Build Back Better' and transform economies. This research seeks to link the public 'taking place' of hope, representing the aspirations of various groups for investment or change stimulated by this fund, with the less visible ways governments 'organise' hope, the expert, technical processes and rationalities that help determine which hopes become realised and why. Using the Aotearoa New Zealand 'shovel-ready' fund as a case study, and drawing upon press releases, media, Official Information requests, and Cabinet documents, we first provide a discourse analysis of the various government and non-government hopes that became attached to this stimulus. We then trace how these became translated into project proposals, before unpacking and analysing the urgent processes developed to assist political decision makers. While crises and hope can be positioned as having significant disruptive potential, we reveal how this was stifled by the technical processes and practices of the processual world enacted at the national scale, which was given significant power. Further, although public discourses reflected a plurality of multi-scalar and temporal hopes for investment, in practice the less visible organisation privileged a much more business-as-usual approach. Consequently, any government aspirations for transformation were rendered less likely due to the processes they themselves established. Overall, we emphasise the need for those committed to reform to bring technical processes and rational practices to greater prominence in order to reveal and challenge their power.

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 indicators—and 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.