Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People [Paperback]

George Frerks (Author), Greg Bankoff (Editor), Dorothea Hilhorst (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1853839647 | ISBN-13: 978-1853839641

Raging floods, massive storms and cataclysmic earthquakes: every year up to 340 million people are affected by these and other disasters, which cause loss of life and damage to personal property, agriculture, and infrastructure. So what can be done? The key to understanding the causes of disasters and mitigating their impacts is the concept of 'vulnerability'. Mapping Vulnerability analyses 'vulnerability' as a concept central to the way we understand disasters and their magnitude and impact. Written and edited by a distinguished group of disaster scholars and practitioners, this book is a counterbalance to those technocratic approaches that limit themselves to simply looking at disasters as natural phenomena. Through the notion of vulnerability, the authors stress the importance of social processes and human-environmental interactions as causal agents in the making of disasters. They critically examine what renders communities unsafe - a condition, they argue, that depends primarily on the relative position of advantage or disadvantage that a particular group occupies within a society's social order. The book also looks at vulnerability in terms of its relationship to development and its impact on policy and people's lives, through consideration of selected case studies drawn from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Mapping Vulnerability is essential reading for academics, students, policymakers and practitioners in disaster studies, geography, development studies, economics, environmental studies and sociology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reviews of this title are not available at this time.

About the Author

Greg Bankoff is associate professor in the School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and research fellow in Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Georg Frerks is professor of Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, and chair of Conflict Prevention and Conflict Management at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Dorothea Hilhorst is associate professor in Disaster Studies at Wageningen University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (January 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853839647
• ISBN-13: 978-1853839641
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)