Preface: Building social capacities for natural hazards: an emerging field for research and practice in Europe

Abstract

“Capacities” have gained considerable attention in the field of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation; this at least is the impression that one gets when reading through scientific publications published over the past few years. The notion of “capacity” is considered as being integral to the concept of vulnerability, i.e. the function of exposure, susceptibility, coping and/or adaptive capacity (Fuchs et al., 2011); it is fundamental to the idea of resilience and its emphasis on how a system is able to absorb shocks and disturbances (Lorenz, 2013) and also central to the consequences of climate change (IPCC, 2007). But the idea of capacities has also gained prominence on the policy level. The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 (UN-ISDR, 2005), for instance, promotes local-level disaster reduction and acknowledges that for such a shift to take place, capacity building efforts are required (UN-ISDR, 2005). The Climate and Disaster Resilience Initiative (CDRI) also launched a so-called capacity-building programme in a number of Asian cities in order to enhance the awareness and communication skills of local decision makers with regard to climate-related risks in their cities (CDRI, 2010). More recently, while the notion of “capacity” is increasingly present, its actual meaning is often taken for granted and, thus, rarely defined. According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD-DAC) (2006), capacity can be generally defined as “the ability of people, organisations and society as a whole to manage their affairs successfully” (Baser and Morgan, 2008, p. 22). A broader search, particularly in development and hazard research, reveals that the term is widely used to encapsulate a broad set of resources (including abilities, skills, financial means, competences, and social relations) of an individual or a social entity (such as a group, a local community or even an entire society) including capacities that are either actually available or provide a potential capacity (i.e. to something latent). Moreover, “capacity” always refers to the existence of something positive. Therefore a lack of capacities implies some sort of deficit. A deficit in capacities thus requires capacity building. Although the explicit term “social capacity building” is only sparsely used, all definitions and approaches basically relate to a social endeavour based on learning, increasing abilities and resources as well as improving interactions between different actors. This special issue entitled “Building social capacities for natural hazards: an emerging field for research and practice in Europe” offers a forum to different views and conceptualizations dealing with capacities and their development. By doing so, this special issue structures this new and interdisciplinary topic by identifying different types of capacities, different approaches to building and enhancing capacities as well as good practices from across Europe. The single papers come from and reflect a broad range of research domains centring on more established concepts in risk and hazard research such as risk governance, risk perception, social vulnerability, or risk communication. As the single contributions show, in all of these different strands of research and established fields of policy different conceptualizations of social capacities and how to enhance and develop them exist. This special issue intends to identify unifying topics and general