Swimming against the Tide: How Disaster Agencies Build Political Resilience

Despite the pressure on politicians to show leadership in times of disaster, many struggle with the extreme leadership challenges imposed by a calamity that is quickly consuming life and property. Drawing on data from elite interviews with senior personnel from disaster agencies in eight countries, we find that emergency managers want to engage with political actors well before a disaster strikes. This is critical to educate the political actor about disaster management, leadership, and communication, and to generate support for resources and funding. The challenge is to place disasters on the agenda of political actors ahead of all-consuming, day-to-day issues.     

陕甘宁边区乡村民众的防灾备荒措施研究

灾荒肆虐、灾害频繁曾是陕甘宁边区乡村社会的一大顽症，如何应对灾荒既是党和政府的重要职责，更是乡村民众必须面对的一个现实问题。陕甘宁边区的乡村民众有着系统而具体的防灾备荒措施，总结这些措施，既能再现当年救灾抗灾的生动画面，又能挖掘出其中的宝贵经验，为当前提供可资借鉴的经验。     

International lawyers in the aftermath of disasters: inheriting from Radhabinod Pal and Upendra Baxi

Abstract

In the present lives in the postcolony are beset by relentless disasters, generating great suffering and loss. How should an international lawyer conduct herself in response? Resisting the urge to construct these times as entirely unprecedented, this article attempts a response by drawing out the conduct of two ancestral Third World international lawyers responding to disasters in their own time. It reveals how disasters never simply occur but are actively produced by particular modes of conduct deployed by international lawyers. From their conduct we learn how to attend to the tasks of justice and responsibility in the aftermath of disaster by being responsive to the suffering and by recognising the disastrous effects of our action. We also learn how attending to the tasks of inheritance is vital for this.     

Local aid workers in the digital humanitarian project: between “second class citizens” and “entrepreneurial survivors”

This paper examines the experiences of Filipino workers recruited for technology and communications work by international aid agencies involved in the Typhoon Haiyan response. Filipino workers, many of whom were personally coping with the social and economic impact of this disaster, were hired on short-term contracts to test and implement various digital humanitarian innovations such as feedback and hazard mapping technological platforms. These workers were doubly marginalized: first, as tech workers whose work was viewed by aid officers on the ground as less substantial than that of food or shelter programs; and second, as local voices often drowned out by national and international colleagues. Moving beyond the usual figure of the cosmopolitan and adventure-seeking Western humanitarian acting on distant suffering, this paper draws attention to local aid workers’ aspirations for personal and professional mobility as they seize novel opportunities opened up by the digital humanitarian agenda. It outlines how the digital humanitarian project’s ambition to facilitate the inclusion of disaster-affected communities is fundamentally undermined by labor arrangements that doubly marginalize local aid workers.     

有我之境与无我之境——新时期以来小说中的气象灾害书写

新时期以来小说中出现了大量对气象灾害及其带来的自然及文化影响的描写,这一题材的写作主要体现了两种不同的话语立场和阐释视角,一是将气象灾害置于人类中心的视野中作为人的对立面进行阐释,一方面歌颂人类改造自然的激情,另一方面控诉底层生活的苦难。另一种是在天人合一的视野中将气象灾害所体现的自然生态与人类生活状态结合在一起,对自然的灵性和人文内涵进行复魅。     

突发自然灾害背景下政治动员与社会动员的关系演进

动员是应对突发自然灾害的一种内在需要，确立一种有效的动员模式极为重要。回顾应对突发自然灾害的历史，动员方式随着社会经济发展变化也发生了转变，从政治动员的为主导转向政治动员与社会动员的融合，这种融合具有一定的政治价值和管理价值，为了实现有效的融合，需要建立相应的组织机制和沟通机制。     

论自然灾害下健康权的法律保障

自然灾害给健康权的可提供性、可获取性、可接受性以及质量保障方面带来了风险。健康需要与权利的密切关系以及国家的契约义务决定了国家必须化解灾民的健康权风险。国际人权条约和大量软法性国际法律文件为自然灾害下国家保障健康权提供了国际标准,中国自然灾害立法基本符合健康权保障的国际标准,但是仍有一定差距。为更好保障灾民的健康权,中国应该将人权保障原则作为灾害立法的基本原则,增加反歧视和照顾弱者的规定,明确宣示灾民的健康权,并制定《灾害救助基本法》。     

Fiscal Decentralization and Natural Disaster Mitigation: Evidence from the United States

How decentralized government structure influences public service delivery has been a major focus of debate in the public finance literature. In this paper, we empirically examine the effect of fiscal decentralization on natural disaster damages across the U.S. states. We construct a unique measure of decentralization using state and local government expenditures on natural resources, which include investment in flood control and mitigation measures, among others. Using state‐level panel data from 1982 to 2011, we find that states that are more decentralized in natural resource expenditures have experienced more economic losses from floods and storms. This effect is only pronounced in states that are at higher risks of flooding. Our findings suggest that fiscal decentralization may lead to inefficient protection against natural disasters and provide implications for the assignment of disaster management responsibilities across different levels of government in the U.S. federal system.     

Beyond disaster framing: exploring multi-mandate INGOs’ representations of conflict

This article examines how and why multi-mandate INGOs represent contemporary armed conflicts in particular ways. Based on empirical analysis of NGO communications and interviews with staff, it finds that these organisations typically adopt a two-track approach to representing conflicts. They use mainstream media to present consequence-oriented accounts to the general public, while utilising alternative channels to represent more nuanced depictions of conflict to more targeted audiences. These alternative forms of communication often aim to disrupt the dominant narratives of conflict produced by influential policy or media actors. Decisions about how to represent conflict are shaped by organisations’ histories, identities and funding relationships.