This paper develops a theoretical understanding of learning during recovery from recurring disasters when humanitarian organizations deploy WASH technologies using examples from…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper develops a theoretical understanding of learning during recovery from recurring disasters when humanitarian organizations deploy WASH technologies using examples from 2012–2013 floods in Assam, Northeastern India.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methods study was conducted in Assam, where Oxfam had responded after 2012 floods and erosion. Two surveys (n1 = 313; and n2 = 279) in 2013, along with 38 semi-structured interviews, 18 household interviews and 23 focus group discussions (FGDs) were undertaken. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data were interpreted thematically.
Findings
One of the product-level innovations included raised platforms with WASH facilities as a preparedness measure for future floods, enabled by a co-learning approach. Social learning within community members provided contextual inputs, while Oxfam learnt through its institutionalized learning mechanisms, namely real-time evaluations, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys and strong monitoring mechanisms. Despite these measures, the precarity of such geographies remains a major concern in increasing vulnerability, and hence this study advocates for an approach towards innovation that equally emphasizes and advances learning within community groups as well as organizations so that lessons can be captured and revisited in future programmes and promote wider application.
Research limitations/implications
This study is exploratory, and longitudinal in nature, although the data and findings are fairly representative of the target population, they do not imply causality and attribution. Since the study relies on a case study, there are limitations of how the findings could be generalized in other similar contexts.
Practical implications
This paper offers a new theoretical lens emphasizing context-specific understanding of short-term but rapid onset and cyclical emergencies resulting in local population displacement. It provides a bottom-up perspective on innovations and technologies deployed by external aid agencies as a commentary on recovery of community resilience from recurring disasters.
Social implications
This paper reframes agency approaches in how they perceive community resilience and enable flood-affected and displaced communities to recover using innovations in WASH technologies.
Originality/value
This paper expands on the key lessons to be gleamed from the many interventions in humanitarian WASH technologies from learning perspective and benefits from reflections as a practitioner in the field.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of place attachment and risk perception with bounded rationality on the willingness to live in a high-earthquake-risk area.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of place attachment and risk perception with bounded rationality on the willingness to live in a high-earthquake-risk area.
Design/methodology/approach
The study establishes a hypothetical model on the basis of the theory of planned behavior, place attachment and risk perception. A structural equation model (SEM) measures the relationships between the variables.
Findings
Place attachment affects individuals and their preferences; it makes them willing to continue living in high-earthquake-risk areas. Additionally, risk perception with bounded rationality (fatalism and optimism bias) might make people believe there is only a slight risk of physical injury or property damage. The overall findings moderately suggest that land-use regulations along fault zone areas are not necessarily driving households away, and such allowance of residential use in the current zoning regulation might mislead people that it is a safe area.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses questionnaires in fault zone-regulated areas where only the fault line has zoning regulations. In addition, the application of SEM has to build upon theory and further examine both direct and indirect effects. The assessment criteria of the model might be limited by the sample amount, causing certain model-fitting results, which are not that significant. The overall findings might be limited by the geographical location and cannot be generalized to other areas in Taiwan.
Practical implications
A more thorough assessment of land-use planning in earthquake-risk areas should consider households’ risk perceptions and adaptation behaviors.
Originality/value
Land-use regulations along fault zone areas might reveal earthquake risk in such areas or mislead people that it is a safe area. Place attachment and risk perceptions might affect individuals’ judgments of whether such risk exists or not. The results could be referred to disaster management in high-earthquake-risk areas.
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Javier Monllor, Ignacio Pavez and Stefania Pareti
Examine and understand how an informal volunteer’s goals and actions develop from the moment they first learn about a disaster.
Abstract
Purpose
Examine and understand how an informal volunteer’s goals and actions develop from the moment they first learn about a disaster.
Design/methodology/approach
We examine informal volunteerism (the activities of people who work outside of formal emergency and disaster management arrangements) through the theoretical lens of entrepreneurial effectuation to explain informal volunteer behavior and cognition and gain insight on how they develop their disaster relief ventures.
Findings
We find that informal volunteers follow an effectual logic, relying on available means to take advantage of opportunities as they are recognized or created. Application of effectuation vs causation processes depended on whether the informal volunteers were categorized as traditional, emergent or extended volunteers.
Practical implications
Informal volunteers’ disregard for the Affordable Loss Principle task governments and disaster relief organizations with the important challenge of managing and assuring the safety and well-being of informal volunteers. Their entrepreneurial behavior also invites the establishment of formal processes to counsel and guide informal volunteers, helping them fill out the necessary paperwork and funding applications to develop their efforts.
Social implications
Through their experimentation and flexibility, informal volunteers accelerate disaster recovery, recognizing opportunities, working around bureaucracy and other roadblocks that hinder the efforts of established organizations. They also demonstrate entrepreneurial behavior that helps revitalize and jumpstart the local economy, making for stronger and more resilient communities
Originality/value
This study borrows from Effectuation Theory from the entrepreneurship field in order to bring a much needed theoretical lens to the topic and greatly assists informal volunteerism research, moving from past efforts that simply define and categorize the concept.
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Angelo Jonas Imperiale and Frank Vanclay
We consider what happened in the initial reconstruction interventions following the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila (Italy). Using the disaster risk reduction and resilience…
Abstract
Purpose
We consider what happened in the initial reconstruction interventions following the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila (Italy). Using the disaster risk reduction and resilience paradigm, we discuss the cognitive and interactional failures of top-down approaches, and we analyse the main constraints to enacting inclusive social learning and socially-sustainable transformation and building back better more resilient communities in post-disaster reconstruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Our evidence comes from participant observation, action anthropology and analytic auto-ethnography conducted during the reconstruction phase following the L'Aquila earthquake. Findings were triangulated with document analysis, media analysis and retrospective interviewing conducted in 2013 and 2017.
Findings
The shift from civil defence to civil protection did not bring any advance in disaster management and development practice in terms of DRR and resilience. The militaristic command-and-control approach, which is still in vogue among civil protection systems, means that local political leaders become the civil protection authorities in a disaster area. As in the L'Aquila case, this exacerbates local social and environmental risks and impacts, inhibits local communities from learning and restricts them from participating in post-disaster interventions.
Originality/value
Most previous commentary on disaster recovery and reconstruction following the L'Aquila earthquake has focussed on the top-down approach carried out by the national government and the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DCP). This paper is unique in that it sheds light on how the command-and-control approach was also implemented by local authority figures and on how this undermined building back better more resilient communities.
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In the current study, the researchers tracked the steps that were taken (in the past 20 years after the occurrence of the 921 earthquake) to enhance the safety of students and…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current study, the researchers tracked the steps that were taken (in the past 20 years after the occurrence of the 921 earthquake) to enhance the safety of students and teachers on campus by rebuilding the schools according to higher standards. Additionally, the researchers analyzed the process of school reconstruction in Taiwan after the Chi-Chi earthquake, as well as the resilience of the rebuilt schools.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper collected extensive relevant literature to serve as a basis for data analysis. Subsequently, they examined the conditions of selected schools before and after they were affected by the earthquake, as well as the reconstruction process of these schools. The purposive sampling method was also adopted to assemble a unique and representative sample.
Findings
This study concluded a new disaster risk reduction education system in Taiwan, from safe learning facilities, school disaster management and risk reduction and resilience education perspectives. It encouraged school and community collaboration regarding establishing a comprehensive disaster management framework.
Originality/value
The paper kept tracks of how schools recovered and restored after the 921 earthquake based on global disaster management trends and local disaster risk reduction education. It also highlighted the major changes within the school resilience system and the importance of disaster risk reduction education in Taiwan.
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Amy Elizabeth Fulton, Julie Drolet, Nasreen Lalani and Erin Smith
This article explores the community recovery and resilience element of “building back better” (BBB) through the perspectives and experiences of community influencers who provided…
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores the community recovery and resilience element of “building back better” (BBB) through the perspectives and experiences of community influencers who provided psychosocial supports after the 2013 floods in southern Alberta, Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
The Alberta Resilient Communities (ARC) project adopted a community-based research methodology to examine the lived realities of children, youth, families and their communities postflood. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 37 community influencer participants representing a range of organizations including not-for-profit agencies, community organizations, social service agencies and government departments.
Findings
The findings were drawn from the interviews held with community influencers in flood-affected communities. Major themes include disaster response challenges, insufficient funding for long-term disaster recovery, community partnerships and collaborations and building and strengthening social capital.
Practical implications
Findings demonstrate the need to build better psychosocial services, supports and resources in the long term to support community recovery and resilience postdisaster for children, youth and families to “build back better” on a psychosocial level.
Social implications
Local social service agencies play a key role in the capacity of children, youth and families to “build back better” postdisaster. These organizations need to be resourced and prepared to respond to psychosocial needs in the long term in order to successfully contribute to postdisaster recovery.
Originality/value
The findings illustrate that adopting a psychosocial framework for disaster recovery can better inform social service disaster response and long-term recovery plans consistent with the BBB framework. Implications for social service agencies and policymakers interested in fostering postdisaster community recovery and resilience, particularly with children and youth, are presented.