240116 SE VM5 / VM1 - From Environmental Hazard to Disaster. On the Vulnerability and Resilience of Societies. (2024W)

The current climate crisis and the accompanying extreme weather events have led many to regard the present as an ‘age of disaster.’ The global covid-19 pandemic might have reinforced such sentiments. In this seminar we study how societies have dealt with disasters over the past two centuries. We are primarily interested in those disasters which were triggered by hydrological and biophysical hazards, i.e. droughts, floods or infectious diseases. Despite the prevalence of the term ‘natural disasters’ in common parlance, disaster scholars generally refuse this term, emphasizing that no disaster is simply a ‘natural event.’ Each disaster unfolds in specific social, economic, cultural and political circumstances which ultimately define the impact of a disaster. Today most scholars agree that it is the vulnerability of societies that is the real cause of disaster.
We use past disasters to test hypotheses of relevance to the present. What makes certain groups of people particularly vulnerable to disasters? What are possible short- and long-term effects of disasters? What type of public and private responses help to mitigate the impact of disasters? Why do some societies recover quicker from disasters than others?

The first part of the seminar is devoted to a thorough introduction to disaster studies based on the recently published Disasters and History (2020) by Bas van Bavel et al. We discuss key concepts, materials and methods used in this field. In this phase of the seminar students will receive an overview of disasters preconditions, disaster responses and effects of disasters. From week 5 to 8 we discuss different types of hazards, each introduced by a chapter of Smith and Patley’s Environmental Hazards (2009). These sessions are complemented with specific case studies. In week 9 students are required to submit a research proposal which is the first major step towards the seminar paper.

// Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Concepts, Materials and Methods
Van Bavel et. al, Disasters and History (2020), Ch. 1–3.

Week 3: Preconditions, Pressures and Responses
Van Bavel et. al, Disasters and History (2020), Ch. 4–5.

Week 4: Short- and Long-term Effects
Van Bavel et. al, Disasters and History (2020), Ch. 6.

Week 5: Hydrological Hazards: Droughts
Overview: Smith and Patley, Environmental Hazards (2009), Ch. 12.
Specifics: De Waal, “The End of Famine?” (2018)

Week 6: Severe Storm Hazards
Smith and Patley, Environmental Hazards (2009), Ch. 9
Oliver-Smith and Hoffmann (eds), The Angry Earth (2020), Ch. 8.

Week 7: Biophysical Hazards: Infectious Diseases
Smith and Patley, Environmental Hazards (2009), Ch. 10.
Davis, The Monster Enters (2021).

Week 8: Climate Crisis
Gosh, The Great Derangement (2016).

Week 9: Individual Consultations: Discussing Proposals and Bibliography

Week 10: Prepare Presentations

Weeks 11–13: Student Present Drafts of Their Seminar Papers

Week 14: Conclusion