Narrow Results

The principal objective of this essay is to pay tribute to James Kenneth Mitchell and his service to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the larger academic community, practitioner circles, and at-risk communities worldwide. As testimony to his instructional and mentoring influences, the works of his former students are described from the author’s experience and point of view. Their works reflect his professional and personal values towards inclusiveness that have helped to shape a more nuanced knowledge about natural hazard risks and related management policies. To bring perspective to Mitchell’s impact on his former students, the essay features a brief review of the literature on natural hazards education, describes the scholastic and service achievements of those students, and concludes with a statement of his ongoing legacy.

Extreme events often bring unexpected situations and impacts, as the sequence of hurricanes and other natural disasters in summer and fall 2017 demonstrated. To reduce the risks associated with such events, many have focused on reducing uncertainty in prediction or reducing vulnerability. Although both are worthy goals, we suggest that the research community should also be focusing on the nature of surprise itself, to investigate the role of surprise in extreme events and its implications. Surprise arises when reality differs from people’s expectations. Multiple factors contribute to creating surprise, including the dynamic nature of natural and human systems, the limitations of scientific knowledge and prediction, and the ways that people interpret and manage risks, not to mention climate variability and change. We argue that surprise is an unavoidable component of weather and climate disasters — one that we must acknowledge, learn to anticipate, and incorporate into risk assessment and management efforts. In sum, although it may seem paradoxical, we should be learning how to expect surprise.

Across three years (2017–2020), the ESRC Seminar series, “Civil Agency, Society and Climate Adaptation to Weather Extremes” (CASCADE-NET) critically examined the changing role of civil society in extreme weather adaptation. One full-day seminar explored “less heard voices” within Civil Society, considering ways of engaging diverse groups in resiliency, knowledge exchange, and capacity building. A small interdisciplinary group from the seminar followed up with a roundtable discussion, conducted online, discussing first who the less-heard voices in society are, and how labels, such as “vulnerable” and “hard to reach”, might need to be reappraised, and concluding that it is often those in power who make themselves “hard to reach” and who fail to listen. The group then discussed how deeper engagement with citizens and communities can be achieved through improved relationships and networks. Finally, the roundtable discussed how the succession of crises affecting the UK (and other settings) could, paradoxically, present an opportune moment to press the case for a more joined-up and inclusive civil society. The concluding section summarizes key insights from the roundtable and identifies opportunities to rethink engagement with “hard to reach” groups. To answer our question of “how to” engage diverse groups, we conclude with the action points to change the orientation of the powerful to (i) be genuinely open to listening to, and acting upon the voices of less heard groups; (ii) listen on the terms of groups who are voicing their experience, rather than force them into pre-arranged consultation formats; (iii) engage early, widely and frequently; (iv) build trust by demonstrating willingness to listen, through actions; (v) tackle historical mistrust, unequal resources, experiences of neglect or exploitation that undermine groups’ interest in engaging with the powerful. A transformation in orientation to community engagement is in order if we are to produce effective, locally attuned, collective action in the face of social shocks.

Disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Although the occurrence of disaster declined between 2003 and 2012, the number of people killed and affected by disaster is still extremely high. The high rate of destruction caused by both natural and anthropogenic hazards necessitated a shift from post disaster response and service — delivery towards to the formulation and implementation of disaster risk reduction measures at the community level. This chapter examines the aim, principles and process of community disaster management. The community plays a significant role in the design and implementation of disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery strategies and measures. A review of the community disaster management strategy implemented in some countries indicates that the approach was effective at reducing the impact of subsequent disasters on such community particularly in terms of loss of lives, properties and destruction of livelihood.