At Risk reasserts the significance of the human factor in disasters. Establishing that the social, political and economic environment is as much a cause of disasters as the natural environment, the book argues that disaster mitigation is rooted in the potential humans have to understand their vulnerability and to take common action.Famines and drought, biological hazards, floods, coastal storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides: At Risk draws practical and policy conclusions with a view to disaster reduction and the promotion of a safer environment.

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

Politics & Social Sciences

Wisner, Ben

Blaikie, Piers

Cannon, Terry

Davis, Ian

Social Sciences

Routledge

At Risk reasserts the significance of the human factor in disasters. Establishing that the social, political and economic environment is as much a cause of disasters as the natural environment, the book argues that disaster mitigation is rooted in the potential humans have to understand their vulnerability and to take common action. Famines and drought, biological hazards, floods, coastal storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides: At Risk draws practical and policy conclusions with a view to disaster reduction and the promotion of a safer environment.

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.

Reference

Most of the world's land is manageable yet, throughout history, damage has been done. Ignorance, population pressure, the profit motive, and pressures on land managers all play their part and are investigated in this book.

Land Degradation and Society (Development Studies)

Science & Math

Brookfield, Harold

Biological Sciences

Routledge& Kegan Paul

AIDS in Africa: Its present and future impact

Terrifying in its potential and devastating in its impact, AIDS is now widespread in a number of African countries. Estimates suggest that as many as five an a half million people on the continent are currently carrying the virus. The AIDS epidemic is among the most severe problems faced by Africans, already weakened by drought, poverty, civil war, and debt. Tony Barnett and Piers Blaikie, who have studied the impact of AIDS in Uganda, present a sensitive and compelling analysis of human cost of this dread disease in Africa.

AIDS in Africa: Its Present and Future Impact

Barnett, Tony

The Guilford Press

Maintaining Relationships Through Communication: Relational, Contextual, and Cultural Variations

First published in 1985. This book examines wide variety of ways in which environmental deterioration, in particular soil erosion, can be viewed and the implicit political judgements that often inform them. Using the context of developing countries, where the effects tend to be more acute due to underdevelopment and climatic factors, this work aims to examine this source of uncertainty and make explicit the underlying assumptions in the debate about soil erosion. It also rejects the notion that soil erosion is a politically neutral issue and argues that conservation requires fundamental social change. This title will be of interest to students of environmental and developmental studies.

The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries

Business & Money

Economics

The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries (Routledge Revivals)

This book brings together a collection of essays that discuss alternative development and its relevance for local/global processes of marginalization and change in the Global South. Alternative development questions who the producers of development knowledges and practices are, and aims at decentring development and geographical knowledge from the Anglo-American centre and the Global North. It involves resistance to dominant political-economic processes in order to further the possibilities for non-exploitative and just forms of development. By discussing how to unravel marginalization and voice change through alternative methods, actors and concepts, the book provides useful guidance on understanding the relationship between theory and practice. The main strength of the book is that it calls for a central role for alternative development in the current development discourse, most notably related to justice, rights, globalization, forced migration, conflict and climate change. The book provides new ways of engaging with alternative development thinking and making development alternatives relevant.

Alternative Development: Unravelling Marginalization, Voicing Change

Brun, Cathrine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blaikie, Piers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Blaikie, Piers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blaikie, Piers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters

Land Degradation and Society (Development Studies)

AIDS in Africa: Its Present and Future Impact

Maintaining Relationships Through Communication: Relational, Contextual, and Cultural Variations

The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries

The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries (Routledge Revivals)

Alternative Development: Unravelling Marginalization, Voicing Change