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Article
Publication date: 31 August 2010

Arnim Wiek, Robert Ries, Lanka Thabrew, Katja Brundiers and Anoja Wickramasinghe

Sustainable housing and community recovery processes in the aftermath of tsunamis have to cope with direct impacts, such as fatalities, destroyed buildings, and loss of economic…

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Abstract

Purpose

Sustainable housing and community recovery processes in the aftermath of tsunamis have to cope with direct impacts, such as fatalities, destroyed buildings, and loss of economic assets, as well as indirect impacts caused by shortcomings in recovery management. Recent studies on post‐tsunami recovery tend to focus on direct impacts, ranging from monitoring to prevention studies. Less attention is paid to recovery as a complex bundle of multi‐agent processes causing subsequent problems.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents results from field studies evaluating post‐tsunami recovery processes in Sri Lanka against the concept of sustainable housing and community recovery. Semi‐structured observations and interviews were conducted on eight sites in the south‐western part of Sri Lanka during field visits 2005‐2006. The research involved beneficiaries and other citizens, representatives from government and administration, field workers (non‐governmental organizations), and scientists.

Findings

Empirical findings identify subsequent problems for specific capital forms, across different capital forms, and across different administrative levels. Moreover, critical issues refer to conceptualizing temporal horizons, comprehensive planning and decision making, stakeholders' involvement, and institutional embedding of recovery processes.

Originality/value

Against this empirical background, the paper indicates improvement potentials referring to literature on comprehensive and adaptive planning to address the sustainable recovery challenges identified. The paper provides guidance for researchers, decision makers, planners, and field workers engaged in post‐disaster sustainable development.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 July 2020

Assunta Di Vaio, Theodore Syriopoulos, Federico Alvino and Rosa Palladino

This paper aims to provide a thorough and systematic overview of the academic literature focusing on the role of integrated reporting (IR) and integrated thinking (IT) in…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a thorough and systematic overview of the academic literature focusing on the role of integrated reporting (IR) and integrated thinking (IT) in achieving sustainable business models (SBMs). The paper discusses whether the incorporation of newer IR systems can facilitate the integration of processes, as well as a better allocation of resources and capital to create long-term value, according to a circular approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a database containing 60 publications in English with a publication date from 1990 to 2019, a bibliometric analysis is conducted. Data on publications, journals, authors and citations are collected, verified, cross-checked and examined by applying bibliometric measures.

Findings

Bibliometric analysis has identified that IR and IT have determined an evolution in the way companies communicate and create value, facilitating the integration of processes and a better allocation of resources and capital. However, market practice still perceives them as simple reporting tools to meet stakeholders’ needs rather than as critical corporate governance tools.

Research limitations/implications

This study highlights key issues in the past literature on IR and IT to meet SDGs, contributing also to the identification of critical difficulties that companies encounter in attempting to attain sustainable goals.

Originality/value

This document contributes to the existing literature on IR, IT and SBMs through a systematic review of the literature on these topics along with the sustainable development goals perspective. The study, furthermore, attempts to assess the role that the relevant literature attributes to IR and IT in the SBMs architecture.

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Article
Publication date: 14 February 2020

Priyabrata Chowdhury and Sanjoy Kumar Paul

Corporate sustainability (CS) is becoming a popular research topic. In recent years, researchers have conducted a significant number of studies in this area. Although a number of…

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Abstract

Purpose

Corporate sustainability (CS) is becoming a popular research topic. In recent years, researchers have conducted a significant number of studies in this area. Although a number of those studies have used a variety of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, to date there is no systematic literature review of this area of research. This paper fulfills this research gap.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis approach to analyze the applications of MCDM methods in research on CS.

Findings

The authors have observed that both single and integrated MCDM methods have been used in this domain; however, single MCDM methods are dominant. Further, this review shows that most of the integrated methods use only two MCDM methods and that there has been no comparison of results obtained from different MCDM methods. After reviewing these developments and summarizing the findings, the authors propose directions for future research, including investigating and formulating strategies for specific CS initiatives, integrating three or more MCDM methods, integrating MCDM methods with optimization techniques, analyzing results from a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) perspective, reconsidering the tenets of existing theories via MCDM methods, and comparing the results of studies of CS in different kinds of economies, as well as the results of using different MCDM methods.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that has conducted a systematic literature review to analyze applications of MCDM methods to different aspects of corporate sustainability, including enablers of and barriers to CS, the evaluation and design of CS initiatives, system or strategy formulation, and performance evaluation, among others.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

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Article
Publication date: 30 July 2019

Muhammad Haris, Abdur Rehman Cheema and Chamila Subasinghe

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the gap in understanding the complexity of barriers, their modifiers and how these barriers and their modifiers result in malpractices and…

437

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the gap in understanding the complexity of barriers, their modifiers and how these barriers and their modifiers result in malpractices and missed good practices in post-earthquake reconstruction contexts. This paper provides insights to the often asked question: why the lessons learnt from one earthquake event are not actually learnt and many of the mistakes around housing reconstruction are repeated?

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on the review of the literature of the top deadliest earthquakes in the developing countries and the two case studies of the 2005 Kashmir and 2015 earthquake in Pakistan.

Findings

Multifarious barriers, their modifiers, malpractices and missed good practices are deeply interwoven, and endemic and include weak financial standing, lack of technical know-how, vulnerable location, social and cultural preference, affordability and availability of materials, over-emphasis on technical restrictions, inefficient policies, lack of clarity in institutional roles, monitoring and training.

Research limitations/implications

The study is desk based.

Practical implications

A better understanding of barriers can help disaster-related organisations to improve the planning and implementation of post-earthquake housing reconstruction.

Social implications

The study contributes to the understanding concerning various social and cultural preferences that negotiate the Build Back Better (BBB) process.

Originality/value

The study offers a distinctive perspective synthesising the literature and the two case studies to sharpen the understanding of the complexity of barriers to BBB.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 8 November 2011

Anna Olofsson

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Swedish mass media constructed Sweden and Swedes during the first days after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.

843

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Swedish mass media constructed Sweden and Swedes during the first days after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles from four of the largest newspapers in Sweden was conducted.

Findings

The results show that the tsunami was framed as a Swedish disaster almost exclusively focusing on Sweden, Swedish victims and Thailand, and that there was a division between “us” and “them”. Two categories of “us” and “them” were identified in the coverage: on the international level Sweden, i.e. “us”, was glorified and contrasted with “inferior” countries such as Thailand, “them”; on the national level, the distinction between “us” and “them” was not as obvious, but by including particular experiences and practices and excluding others, lines are drawn between “us” – ethnic Swedes – and “them” – everyone else. The conclusion of the paper is that mediated frames of catastrophes are influenced by stereotypes and nationalistic values.

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on a qualitative analysis and it is not possible to generalize to other cases. Additional quantitative studies would therefore be of value.

Practical implications

This study can be used in the education of crisis and disaster managers to make them aware of how underlying norms guide news coverage and encourage them always to consider information based on mass media reports critically.

Originality/value

This paper gives new theoretical and empirical insights into the way in which disasters contribute to recreating and maintaining the historical division between regions and people, on both a national and an international level.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Hiromi Nakazato and Seunghoo Lim

Community currency (CC) is used as a tool for reviving local communities by promoting economic growth and facilitating the formation of social capital. Although the Japanese CC…

552

Abstract

Purpose

Community currency (CC) is used as a tool for reviving local communities by promoting economic growth and facilitating the formation of social capital. Although the Japanese CC movement has stagnated since mid-2005, a new experiment, Fukkou Ouen Chiiki Tsuka (CC for supporting disaster recovery), was introduced across disaster-damaged areas after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. Previous studies assessing the role of CC in these earthquake-damaged areas are rare; the purpose of this paper is to examine the micro processes of community rebuilding that underlie the transactional networks mediated by one of the experiments, Domo, in Kamaishi.

Design/methodology/approach

Using transactional records capturing residents’ CC activities during the five-month pilot period before actual implementation of Domo simultaneous investigation for empirical network analysis techniques identify the network configuration dynamics representing the multiple observed forms of social capital in this disaster-affected local community.

Findings

This study of the five-month pilot for the Domo system revealed: intensive dependence on the coordinating role of core members (i.e. the creation of weak ties), a lack of balanced support among members and the resulting uni-directional transactions (i.e. the avoidance of generalized exchanges), and the reinforcement of previous transactional ties via reciprocation or transitive triads (i.e. the formation of strong ties).

Originality/value

This study provides guidance for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers on how community residents’ engagement in CC activities could function as a potential tool for generating positive socio-economic effects for local communities in disaster areas.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Hugo Romero and Cristian Albornoz

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the political and economic objectives sought by the government of Chile to understand the characteristics of the reconstruction process for…

409

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the political and economic objectives sought by the government of Chile to understand the characteristics of the reconstruction process for housing damaged by the earthquake and tsunami of 27 February 2010, contrasted with the opinions of the target communities, the instruments that were utilized and the generation of new vulnerabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

The governmental objectives have been compiled from speeches publicized by the press and obtained from interviews with players from the public and community sectors. The areas of reconstruction in the city of Constitución have been represented in a geographical information system. The opinions of the community have been gathered through a survey conducted amongst the new residents.

Findings

Case analysis shows that the political and economic efforts during the reconstruction process were focused on proving the success of the methods used: public-private alliances and consultation with the communities to precede reconstruction of housing and urban infrastructure. However, the results of the reconstruction process do neither reveal good governance nor functionality of the reconstructed areas.

Research limitations/implications

The results cannot be applied to other localities devastated by the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, nor to other institutional or economic contexts. It is also necessary to observe the process of adaptation of the communities over a longer time period to verify the increase in vulnerability.

Practical implications

The paper constitutes a complete evaluation of the reconstruction process that prompts institutional changes.

Social implications

A contrast is offered between the objectives and actions of the diverse social and political actors, and the contradictions in their speeches and actions are shown.

Originality/value

An unprecedented process is analysed in which a developing country uses its own resources to undertake a reconstruction under a political rhetoric that is not necessarily shared by the local society that must finally assume the additional costs.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

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