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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042564/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This publication calls for a reconceptualization of vulnerability and risk, which are often defined in technocratic and reductionist ways. Instead, these concepts are addressed in a holistic manner, moving away from a focus on the threat of a particular physical phenomenon outside of society’s control, towards a focus on how everyday activities and realities may produce the conditions that make disaster likely. The concept of vulnerability has often been described as physical vulnerability. For instance, poverty is incorrectly presented as a feature or characteristic of vulnerability and not as a factor that produces vulnerability. Instead, the author suggests, vulnerability should be looked at from a more comprehensive perspective, what he calls “global vulnerability.” This concept, according to the author, is more exhaustive than that of physical vulnerability in the sense that it also incorporates socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors, which, he points out, represent the main causes of physical vulnerability in Third World countries. From this standpoint, it can be argued that there is connection between socioeconomic exclusion and vulnerability. By the same token, the distribution of power in a society is an explanatory factor when attempting to understand the vulnerability of certain groups of people, because it determines the ways in which resources are distributed. Second, the author contends that risk reduction has not been a reality because risk has been incorrectly assessed. He asserts that the concept of risk has been reduced to geological or structural variables. To address this issue, the author proposes what he calls a “holistic approach of risk,” which includes not only geological or structural variables, but also socioeconomic, political, and cultural attributes. This approach, in his view, is more effective to mitigate risks, because socioeconomic and political problems increase risk. This document proposes a new way to understand vulnerability and risk, or a new lens through which to look at these concepts in order to make risk reduction a reality. It highlights new dimensions of vulnerability and risk, particularly the socioeconomic and political variables that increase the incidence of both. Disasters are therefore a product of social and political factors as much, if not more so, as they are of physical hazards. ( English )
- Subject:
- General Risk Management ( English )
- Subject:
- Poverty ( English )
- Citation/Reference:
- Cardona, O. D. (2003). The need for rethinking the concepts of vulnerability and risks from a holistic perspective: a necessary review and criticism for effective risk management. Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevencion de Desastres en América Latina (LA RED), Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Refer to main document/publisher for use rights.
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13042564
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