The document discusses the context of disasters and argues that traditional models of viewing disasters as isolated physical events do not consider broader social and economic factors that influence vulnerability. It advocates taking a holistic view of the root causes of vulnerability, including issues like poverty, inequality, the prioritization of capital over people, and the role of neo-liberal policies in weakening regulations and safeguards. The Grenfell Tower fire tragedy is used as a case study to illustrate how these wider issues can contribute to disasters. The document also examines the increasing importance of human mobility and migration in the modern world.
3. We should consider our world as it is.
Alan Kurdi 2015
Science encourages us to look at reality selectively, not
holistically: yet we must look at all sides of the problem.
11. RESILIENCE:
as a material has brittle
strength and ductility:
society must have an optimum
combination of resistance to
hazard impacts and ability
to adapt to them.
12. "Resilience" viewed as a form of oppression
New Orleans, post-Katrina
the agenda of neo-liberal urbanism.
15. Capital is winning against labour:
when will the tide turn?
Tax havens and world trade, inequality.
16. • it is not necessarily harmed by disaster
• does capital safeguard people or itself?
The cheapness and redundancy of labour
is a form of disenfranchisement.
Capital as a resource for
disaster mitigation and recovery
17. • consolidate power structures
• augment profits, concentrate wealth
• allow introduction of conveniently
repressive measures
• permit gratuitous social engineering.
The economic and social
VALUE of disasters
19. London would be a very resilient city were
it not for the high price of property.
• housing agenda over-influenced
by foreign investment companies
• shortage of housing that is
not for investment purposes
• large portion of disposable income spent
on housing, less for other purposes
• poor quality and vulnerable housing
is a feature of the property market
• personal and family security reduced.
22. • London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• 24-storey residential building, 129 apartments
• constructed in 1970, renovated in 2015-2016
• 14 June 2017 fire: 72 dead, 74 injured, 65 rescued.
Grenfell Tower
23. • an enclave of poverty in
Britain's richest municipality
• In a year and a half, almost all official news
from Grenfell Tower has been negative:
much of it has been scandalous
24. • Coroners’ recommendations from previous fires ignored
• Cladding used in the renovation was not fire-resistant
• Building codes had been weakened
• Enforcement of codes was left to construction industry
• Residents’ concerns were not listened to.
Some context of the fire tragedy:-
25. • Fire service was not geared up for high-rise rescue
• The wrong advice was given to residents
• Local authority response to disaster was ineffective
• Suffering of survivors increased by
inappropriate responses to the disaster.
Contributory factors:-
26. • public enquiry
• litigation
• rehousing and rehabilitation
• compensation
• demolition.
£1 billion:-
27. • 311 residential tower blocks deemed unsafe in UK
• major evacuations in Camden, London
• fire wardens hired at high cost
• disputes over who pays for recladding
• apartments in tower blocks lose their sale value.
Cascading effects of the Grenfell Tower tragedy:-
28. • failure to manage risk as it affects poor people
• commercial lobbying & profit weaken safety regulations
• ideological retreat from good, safe public housing
• London needs basic service workers:
where to house them?
• government elitism thrown into sharp relief.
More context:-
29.
30. Conclusion: the Grenfell Tower tragedy
is an artefact of neoliberal policies
and their effect upon basic safety.
35. • a reaction to global hegemony
• wars and proxy wars -
the struggle for power
• globalisation of production
and the exploitation of labour
• a reaction to the mobility
and concentration of capital.
Human mobility
36. Have we passed a threshold towards a new organisation
of society in which human mobility is much more
central and important?
37. Time to re-examine notions
of geographical inertia.
Places remain, people move.
39. What is welfare?
The provision of care to a
minimum acceptable standard
to people who are unable
adequately to look after
themselves.
But we also need to focus
on what welfare is NOT...
42. Currently the links between DRR and
human mobility are relatively slight.
There are abundant opportunities for them
to become more significant and powerful.
45. Climate change Terrorism
Displacement
and migration
Pandemics
and epidemics
Population increase
Environmentalchange
Conflict
Technological
disasters and
major incidents
'Natural'
disasters