Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

This article focuses on mechanisms to handle inequality among participants in claimed participatory spaces. An ethnographic study of the Occupy Sandy network after Hurricane Sandy in New York City shows how activists worked with socio-economically marginalised communities with the aim of empowering them. Yet, the compensatory mechanisms put in place to counteract inequality brought about three problems of differentiation. These were: variation in individual agency, the difficulty of intersectional positions and situated marginalisation beyond commonly acknowledged identity markers.

This article focuses on how democratic ideals are translated into practice with regard to dealing with background inequality between participants in participatory spaces. The paper draws on a tension between deliberative democracy and difference democracy. Although recent decades have seen a closing of the gap between these two streams of democratic theorizing, they could still be said to propose different methods for dealing with background inequality between participants. This paper builds on an ethnographic study of Rockaway Wildfire, a local branch of the wider Occupy Sandy network that emerged in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York City in 2012, to organize politically with socio-economically marginalized communities struck by the storm, with the aim to empower them. Occupy activists held and practiced ideals best conceptualized as being part of a difference democratic theory whereas the residents instead questioned, challenged and resisted these methods, based on ideas adhering to a deliberative democratic reasoning. Through an analysis building on participatory observations, field observations and interviews, three theoretical problems are brought to light: the problem of situated marginalization beyond commonly acknowledged identity markers, the problem of variation in individual agency and the problem of intersectional positions.

This book taps into discussions about social vulnerability, empowerment, and resistance in relation to disaster relief and recovery. It disentangles tensions and dilemmas within post-disaster empowerment, through a rich ethnographic narrative of the work of Occupy Sandy in Rockaway, New York City, after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It details both a remarkable collaborative relief phase, in which marginalized communities were empowered to take active part, as well as a phase of conflict and resistance that came about as relief turned to long-term recovery.

This volume particularly aims to understand how community empowerment processes can breach pre-disaster marginalization in the aftermath of disasters. It connects with broader emancipatory literature on dilemmas involved in empowerment ‘from the outside’. In a future of potentially harsher climate related disasters and increased social vulnerability for certain communities, this book contributes to a full and nuanced understanding of community empowerment and vulnerability reduction.

This book will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists, and urban studies researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in disaster management, disaster risk reduction, social vulnerability, community empowerment, development studies, local studies, social work, community-based work, and emancipatory theory.

This article devises a road ahead for future studies of gender mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) processes. In comparison to other fields, DRR processes lag behind in implementing a gender perspective, despite decades of activism among practitioners, activists and researchers. More research is needed to understand why this is so, since there is only a handful studies focusing the issue and none that systematically explores this failure. In comparison, there is an abundance of research done on gender mainstreaming within other fields of practice. With help of this bulk of research, the article extends the limited research done on gender mainstreaming of DRR. Gender mainstreaming theory from other fields is used to identify relevant factors that may hinder effective gender mainstreaming of DRR, in order to devise a solid research strategy for more systematic research on the topic in the future.

Spontaneous, so-called emergent groups often arise in response to emergencies, disasters, and crises where citizens and relief workers find that pre-established norms of behavior, roles, and practices come into flux because of the severity and uncertainty of the situation. The scholarship on emergent groups dates to 1950s sociological theory on emergence and convergence, whereas contemporary research forms part of the wider disaster scholarship field. Emergent groups have been conceptualized and theorized from various angles, ranging from discussions around their effectiveness, to their possibilities as channels for the positive forces of citizen’s altruism, as well as to more skeptical accounts detailing the challenges emergent groups may pose for established emergency management organizations in relief situations. Scarce scholarly attention, however, is paid to the role of emergent groups when it comes to empowering marginalized and vulnerable communities. The few empirical studies that exist suggest linkages between active participation in emergent groups and empowerment of otherwise marginalized communities, as shown in an ethnographic study of the work of Occupy Sandy that emerged in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that struck New York City in 2012. Although more systematic research is warranted, such empirical examples show potential in terms of shifting emergency and disaster management toward more inclusionary, participatory, and empowering practices. As low-income communities, often of color, experience the increasingly harsh effects of climate change, important issues to ponder are inclusion, participation, and empowerment.

Det här är en studie om katastrofer, sårbarhet och makt. Avhandlingenspringer ur ett forskningsproblem: främjandet av marginaliserade gruppersegenmakt (empowerment) tros fungera bäst om den sker inifrån den egnagruppen och utifrån självorganiserande principer, men trots detta initierasoch styrs emancipatoriska projekt ofta av aktörer som inte själva tillhör marginaliseradegrupper. Genom en etnografisk studie av gräsrotsorganiseringinom Occupy Sandy efter orkanen Sandy i Rockaway, New York City, 2012,undersöks utomstående aktivisters försök att främja utsatta gruppers egenmakt.Detta spåras över tid från akut katastrofhantering till långsiktigt förändringsarbete,utifrån tre organiseringsideal som aktivisterna försökte omsättai praktiken; inkludering, flexibilitet och horisontalitet. Samarbetsprocessenkännetecknades av att den priviligierade aktören sökte främja denicke-priviligierade aktörens egenmakt genom att gradvis lämna över kontrollenöver organisationens målformuleringar och arbetssätt. Analysen visar attsamverkan mellan aktivister och boende fungerade bra i den akuta hanteringsfasenmen sämre i återhämtningsfasen. De tre organiseringsidealen sågut att resultera i främjande av de boendes egenmakt inledningsvis. I denlångsiktiga fasen däremot kom de boendes egenmakt att villkoras av de utomståendeaktivisternas agenda; endast de som höll med främjades. Dettaledde till spänningar, konflikter, och motstånd från de boende. Utifrån dettadras slutsatsen att längden på samarbetsprojekt inte är enda faktorn som ärrelevant för huruvida tillit utvecklas, utan också graden av komplexitet iarbetsuppgifterna. Ju mer komplexa frågor som deltagare behöver kommaöverens om, desto svårare blir det att samarbeta, och desto svårare blir detför priviligierade aktörer att lämna över kontroll. Analysen visar vidare påkopplingar mellan internt inflytande för sårbara grupper inom organisationenoch organisationens externa möjligheter till politisk påverkan, vilket flätarsamman de undersökta mikroprocesserna med bredare frågor om förändringav strukturellt differentierad sårbarhet.

The chapter is an analysis of the Sendai Framework for action; the central policy document in the global field of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Since this Framework sets the agenda for the wider field of DRR practice across the globe, it is important to scrutinise for anyone interested in problems of gender-based disaster inequality. The Sendai Framework acknowledges issues of gender inequality yet, as discussed in this chapter, does so in a rather limited and somewhat problematic way. To understand the shortcomings the analysis makes use of Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) approach to policy analysis. With help of this analytical tool,  two conceptual logics are identified in the Framework that prevent full incorporation of a gender perspective. Firstly, a relief logic assumes a temporality of acuteness and prescribes male-dominated professional domains as experts. This makes a political analysis of gender inequality unintelligible. The relief logic also renders silent political solutions to alter gender inequalities. Secondly, a techno-managerial logic proposes technical and managerial solutions to problems of disaster risk. This rewrites solutions to structural inequalities as problems that can be solved technologically and managerially – in contrast to the types of political solutions needed to alter gender inequalities.

I Att samverka i kris möter vi människor som i akuta krissituationer ställs inför olika samarbetsproblem och dilemman. Deras historier berättas i skönlitterär form och illustrerar inlevelsefullt mellanmänskligt samspel i krislägen. Berättelserna levandegör de efterföljande analyserna och teoretiskt förankrade resonemangen där författarna kartlägger och belyser problematik och trångmål som uppstår under kritiska omständigheter.

Stoffet i skildringarna är empiriskt material från verkliga situationer som terrordåd och skogsbränder, och författarna har lagt sig vinn om att på ett pedagogiskt sätt visa på de utmaningar som kan uppstå vid samverkan i krissituationer. De analyserar händelseförloppen med hjälp av forskningsrön och beskriver också det svenska förvaltningssystemets betydelse för respektive krissituation. På så vis får läsaren även med sig kunskaper om det svenska krisberedskapssystemet. Boken lämpar sig för studenter, yrkesverksamma och andra med intresse för krishantering, krisberedskap och samverkan.

Climate change, globalization, urbanization, social isolation, and increased interconnectednessbetween physical, human, and technological systems pose major challenges to disaster risk reduction(DRR). Subsequently, economic losses caused by natural hazards are increasing in many regions of theworld, despite scientific progress, persistent policy action, and international cooperation. We argue thatthese dramatic figures call for novel scientific approaches and new types of data collection to integratethe two main approaches that still dominate the science underpinning DRR: the hazard paradigm and thevulnerability paradigm. Building from these two approaches, here we propose a research framework thatspecifies the scope of enquiry, concepts, and general relations among phenomena. We then discuss theessential steps to advance systematic empirical research and evidence-based DRR policy action.

The magnitude of a disaster is not measured solely by the size of an earthquake or strength of a storm. It depends on how societies are structured and organised, as this affects their disaster resilience.