Humanitarian neophilia: the ‘innovation turn’ and its implications

This paper critically examines the ‘humanitarian innovation’ movement, arguing that it represents a departure from classical principles and the entry of a distinctive new ideology into the sector. Labelling this ‘humanitarian neophilia’, the paper argues that it has resonances of Barbrook and Cameron’s ‘Californian Ideology’, with its merging of New Left and New Right within the environs of Silicon Valley. Humanitarian neophilia, similarly, comes from a diverse ideological heritage, combining an optimistic faith in the possibilities of technology with a commitment to the power of markets. It both ‘understates the state’ and ‘overstates the object’, promoting a vision of self-reliant subjects rather than strong nation-states realising substantive socioeconomic rights.     

重大灾害中的集体行动及类型化分析

面对繁琐复杂的灾害表层现象时,如何进一步与主流社会学理论对话,这是未来灾害社会学研究重要的议题和努力方向.通过引入集体行动视角,将灾害中的集体行动具体化为“灾区内灾民集体行动”与“灾区外志愿者集体行动”两种类型.灾民的苦痛及重建的困境越大,对灾害的解读就越倾向“人祸”因素,并通过“搜索信息行动”、“定义情境行动”和“咎责行动”,引起大量的抗争性负向集体行动,甚至威胁到政府的政治安全目标以及社会的公正和稳定性.政府应通过灾害信息的及时颁布、专家诠释等策略影响灾害情境定调取向,将灾害导向“天灾”而非政府的疏失.灾后资源缺乏并非负向集体行动产生的主要原因,更重要的是弱势群体的受灾风险偏高.灾害治理的最高境界就是通过对媒体和民间力量的监督以及公平性机制的建构,将灾害情境中的集体行动整合成救灾和灾后复原的正向行动而规避其负面风险.     

Enacting catastrophe: preparedness,insurance, budgetary rationalization

Abstract

This article examines ‘enactment’ as a significant new form of knowledge about collective life that differs fundamentally from familiar forms of ‘social’ knowledge. The emergence of enactment is traced through a series of domains where the problem of estimating the likelihood and consequence of potentially catastrophic future events has been made an explicit object of expert reflection: response to a possible nuclear attack in US civil defence planning in the late 1940s; the emergence of natural hazard modelling in the 1960s and 1970s; and the emergence today of terrorism risk assessment and its proposed application to federal budgetary distributions. The article engages with central questions in debates around ‘risk society’ and insurance, holding that new approaches to understanding and assessing risk are not merely idiosyncratic or subjective. Rather, they should be treated as coherent new forms of knowledge and practice whose genealogy and present assemblies must be traced.     

对“关于特大安全事故行政责任追究的规定”的思考

针对近年来不断发生的特大安全事故 ,国务院于 2 0 0 1年出台了《关于特大安全事故行政责任追究的规定》。本文在分析追究行政责任必要性及其特点的基础上 ,对行政责任追究规定提出若干质疑 ,以有利于今后进一步修改完善     

开元政治的恤灾观念与关照民生的诗歌意识

唐玄宗开元年间,一改高宗武后时期重视祥瑞的政治风气而对现实的自然灾害极为关心,尤其对频繁发生于京洛山东一带的水旱灾害更为焦虑。受到这种恤灾观念的影响,以裴耀卿为代表的地方官员和以高适、杜甫为代表的诗人,结合自己在这一地域中具体的为官经历和生活体验,形成了忧虑灾害、关照民生的意识。与此相应,求雨施惠的政治行为又与“喜雨”的意识相结合,给诗文中的农田风光带来清新质朴的生活气息。     

Typhoon Haiyan: pushing the limits of resilience? The effect of land inequality on resilience and disaster risk reduction policies in the Philippines

Disaster risk reduction has been an important priority in the Philippines for the last twenty years. Yet Typhoon Haiyan still resulted in at least 6000 deaths and affected more than 14 million people. Why was this the case in a country supposedly well equipped to respond to natural disasters? While there are several explanations, including the sheer scale of this typhoon, corruption, and implementation challenges, this paper focuses on growing social and economic inequalities. This paper argues that the resilience discourse and framework at the national level do not translate into programs that help lift people out of poverty, particularly landless people. This is because state-led resilience policies focus on technical aspects of recovery rather than the root cause of vulnerabilities, explaining to some extent the high level of casualties in the wake of typhoon Haiyan. Evidence supporting this argument is drawn from more than forty interviews between 2013 and 2015 with disaster victims and professionals involved in resilience building.     

Institutional design and organisation of the civil protection national system in Mexico: the case for a decentralised and participative policy network

Mexico established the Civil Protection National System (CPNS) following the disastrous 1985 earthquake that killed nearly 10,000 people and devastated large sections of Mexico City. The institutional design and structure of the CPNS embraced citizen demands for greater participation in the Federal government's disaster prevention and response programmes. The authors examine the Federal government's response to disasters since 1985 and conclude that the CPNS operates in a manner that is contrary to the precepts that shaped its design and structure. The authors conclude that orthodox beliefs and assumptions about disasters rationalise the current operations of the CPNS. They argue that a holistic perspective of disasters, rather than a change in institutional design and organisation, is required in order to operationalise intergovernmental cooperation and citizen participation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Natural Disasters and the Size of Nations

What is the relationship between natural disasters and country size? Is an increasing likelihood of environmental shocks linked to political integration or secessionism? We argue that natural disasters are associated with a decline in country size. This relationship arises because costs generated by disasters are higher for citizens located farther away from the political center of a country, and costs are amplified as disasters affect a larger area in a country, which in turn makes it less desirable for citizens in remote regions to remain part of a larger country. Our empirical results show that greater risks of environmental shocks are indeed associated with smaller countries, as well as smaller administrative units.     

重大自然灾害应急处置与权利保护

在重大自然灾害面前各种社会主体的应急行为及其与权利保护之间的协调很重要,主张保护权利和维护公共利益同样重要。应急处置中的各种措施和各种社会主体在实施处置行为时都应充分考虑对权利的保护,也应关注职责在身时保护自身权利的限度。     

Public Involvement in NHS Inquiries

Opportunities for engaging the public have changed over the fifty years since the inquiry into the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. NHS inquiries, and inquiries more widely, tend to be called where events have led to public concern and loss of public confidence. Involvement of the public could therefore be assumed to form a part of restoring that public confidence. This paper explores the mechanisms for public involvement in NHS inquiries over the past fifty years, assessing the roles played by the public. It uses the framework outlined by Geoffrey Howe to examine how members of the public have been involved in four NHS inquiries. Findings suggest that the roles and mechanisms have varied, but that understanding the extent of public involvement is a dimension to assessing each of the potential functions of an NHS inquiry.