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Living with the Unexpected: Linking Disaster Recovery to Sustainable Development in...
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by Anja K. Possekel and I. Adams
Sales Rank: 4462487
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List Price: $189.00
$189.00
At Amazon
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Hardcover: 287 pages
Publisher: Springer; 1 edition September 15, 1999
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3540657096
ISBN-13: 978-3540657095
Product Dimensions:
9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
Product Description
This study deals with complexity and uncertainty, thereby focusing on appropriate methods which enable vulnerable communities to cope effectively with natural hazards and disasters. The central goal of the study is an applicable combination of hazard management and development planning. Therefore, the reconstruction process following a disaster is understood as an opportunity for structural changes and self-organisation processes that can foster sustainable development. In this context the potential of scenario planning as an evolutionary and participatory learning approach is addressed. The empirical research concentrates on the time before and during the volcanic crisis on the Caribbean island Montserrat. Particular methods used are a systematic analysis of the case study, more than 200 interviews with stakeholders and citizens - concentrating on resource and hazard perception, as well as the organisation and execution of various scenario workshops.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German
Customer Reviews & Comments
This carefully written, 287-page hardback book illustrated with many photographs, maps, and charts - a factual book which will appeal particularly to those with a professional, academic, or personal interest in Montserrat's economy, geography, and future development, as well as to people who may be involved in preparation for other potential disasters elsewhere. I don't think it is possible to find a better comprehensive summary of Montserrat's current situation anywhere. It opens with three chapters which set the stage, rather than being focused on Montserrat specifically. These are of more interest to professional geographers, social scientists, or economists. First, it places Montserrat in the context of the United Nations' International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. The second chapter outlines the theoretical basis of the study, discussing the principle of sustainable development, the nature of complexity and uncertainty, the uses of systems theory, and the tasks of hazard management and hazard planning. Chapter 3 discusses strategic planning in general, and the use of the scenarios in this - the heading to this chapter quotes Pericles: "It is less important to foresee the future than to be prepared for it" - a dictum which would serve everyone well who lives in areas at risk of hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, and floods! The fourth chapter gets into the meat of the subject of Montserrat, starting with a comprehensive description of Montserrat. It quotes Davy (John Davy from 1854? The reference is not included in the bibliography): "No island in these seas is bolder in its general aspect, more picturesque and I think I might add without exaggeration, more beautiful in the detail of its scenery - indeed might be tempted to say considering its fortunes, that it has the fatal gift of beauty". The settlement, geological, and ecological maps of Montserrat are excellent, and the summary of Montserrat's history from pre-Columbian times, through a detailed description of the recovery from Hugo, up to the present, is very informative - it includes details and histories of the social, demographic, economic and political structure of Montserrat which are summarized better than I have ever seen elsewhere (where else can you find a diagram of the political structure of Montserrat, with the names and village of origin of every senior civil servant and the location of the 23 departments under the four ministries?). This chapter, like much of the book, also reports the findings of surveys and interviews conducted with a substantial number of people in Montserrat. The chapter gives a blow-by-blow (or should I say flow-by-flow?) account of each stage of the volcanic crisis, with reproductions of every one of the series of risk zone maps produced by the MVO, together with an account of the economic, social, and political upheavals, and several photographs by the author, Doug Darby, David Lea and others. For anyone who wants a review and summary of the events, this must be the best account yet, and it combines on-island and off-island sources in a very useful way - with quotations from interviews with ordinary people, lyrics by Arrow, Cupid, and Rachel Collis, poems, and charts to boot! Chapter 5 sets the scene for the author's "scenarios" methodology in hazard management, and Chapter 6 starts by describing a "dry run" of this methodology using a group in Hamburg, before it gets down to the nitty-gritty, exploring the different development scenarios envisioned for Montserrat by a varied group of Montserratians who were convened for the purpose. The scenarios included such varied vision as Montserrat as "the small Caribbean Jaguar", "Business as usual" (if only that were possible! It is accompanied by a drawing of taxi drivers playing dominoes by the War Memorial) and "Sustainable Development". Political scenarios, including independence or closer integration with the UK are also explored. I'm not a geographer, an economist, or a planner, so I don't feel equipped to pass judgement on this book in any way. I'm left with the feeling that there are some great techniques and great ideas out there, but that the powers that be in Montserrat - and indeed the people as a whole - are just going to "muddle through", and that without deciding on even one of the possible scenarios or road maps outlined in this book, Montserrat will just flounder, economically, politically, socially, and environmentally. If a country does not know where it wants to go, it is unlikely to get there, and I see no sign that there has been much thought to where the country wants to do, all the platitudes of the Strategic Development Plan notwithstanding. A book of this sort does not have the immediacy or focus of something as specific as the Wadge report, but that makes it no less important, but I think it will be relegated to the same dusty shelf as the Wadge report was, and with the same kind of consequences.
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Living with the Unexpected: Linking Disaster Recovery to Sustainable Development in...
List Price: $189.00
Available from Amazon
Price: $189.00
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