Transformation: A Renewed Window on Development Responsibility for Risk Management

Abstract

Transformation breaths! It has entered the life cycle of dangerous words. Institutions from the IPCC to UNISDR are reflecting on what transformation brings to the understanding of risk and its implications for prioritisation in risk management agendas and policy. This comes at a time when transformation is being increasingly invoked in wider debates in recognition of the unsustainable and increasingly inequitable path of dominant development. Not least transformation has for some time been established in climate change mitigation discourse to express the need for fundamental adjustments in the global energy economy. This moment opens exciting scope for risk management to have a voice in wider debates on development pathways and futures, and to place risk management within development in ways that can maximise its contribution towards a more sustainable and equitable development trajectory as one of many theatres for transformation to take place and where the impacts of transformation will need to be measured and managed. The current Journal — the Journal of Extreme Events — is well placed to lead debates on transformative adaptation and its place in trying to move towards more sustainable and resilient development. The expectation and impact of extreme events have been shown to act as catalysts for systems change. But understanding and policy would benefit from a much more nuanced analysis than we currently command. An important element is the connection between transformative processes and opportunities, and the occurrence or anticipation of extremes. Both are connected and call for a more central appreciation of scale, viewpoint and the impermanence of development gains (and constraints) in the Anthropocene. J Extreme Events, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014) 1402003 (5 pages) © World Scientific Publishing Company DOI: 10.1142/S2345737614020035