Disaster risk reduction (DRR) represents a shift in the paradigm of disaster management from “response and recovery” to “prevention and preparedness.” International organizations have been key players in advancing this agenda. This chapter seeks to explore the challenging nature of contemporary endeavors in disaster risk governance, which are intricately linked to the neoliberal agenda of “hollowing out” state functions. Under this agenda a reduced role for the state has emerged and an opening of the governing arena to a wider multitude of nonstate actors. This chapter discusses three dimensions to the changing distribution of influence and responsibility in disaster risk governance. The first is the “upward” dimension, wherein governments are becoming more accountable to global institutions. Second, the “outward” or mainstreaming the agenda of disaster risk reduction requires sectors to integrate disaster and development into their activities to develop better prevention and preparedness. Third, the “downward” or decentralization of disaster risk governance arguably enables local communities to formulate realistic and implementable prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery plans. In this complex and changing governance landscape of disaster risk reduction, as the neoliberal state is hollowed out and responsibilities are reoriented upward, outward, and downward, the question arises: “who really governs DRR?”

Southern Africa suffers from an acute lack in skilled capacities for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The region, with its unique disaster risk profile, is mostly bound by its inability to effect change and transformation for sustainable development and resilience building. Reasons for these limitations are largely due to the lack of capacities in disaster risk reduction with the public, semiprivate, as well as private sectors. However, since the 1990s, some significant work in disaster risk governance in the region has led to some of the most forward-thinking policies and acts in the world. Therefore, the disaster risk reduction communities in the various Southern African states have not been idle. The major constraint now faced is the translation of these policies and plans into action, and this is where the need for more capacities becomes strikingly obvious. Research and academic institutions in the region have outlived all of the regimes and regime changes. These institutions are ideally suited to address the policy/practice gap that exists within the disaster risk reduction domain. In this chapter, we argue for a focus shift in developing sustainable capacities for disaster risk reduction in Southern Africa by first acknowledging and second harnessing the existing skills base in the region. We believe that contemporary capacity development for disaster risk reduction is predominantly ad hoc, short term, project focused, and microsized, and should be changed from within the region, by building on existing institutions and networks that are driven by Southern African institutions.

Flood is an integral part of Bangladesh and so is the suffering of the people living in flood-prone areas. Unlike cyclone shelters, very few designated flood shelters exist in Bangladesh; this is because of the difference in the nature of these two phenomena. Flood shelters in three locations along three major rivers were visited, and communities were consulted to address some selected issues regarding the shelters. Three major types of flood shelters were identified for the comparison, which are community shelter, school-cum-shelter, and individual homestead. The range of issues included accessibility to shelters, land availability, protection of lives and livelihoods, basic facilities and services, safety and security of women and children, willingness and priority of potential users, and maintenance and cost-effectiveness. The primary objective of this chapter was to investigate the benefits and shortcomings of the types of flood shelters that are in use and check if any particular type of shelter could be recommended as solution. The findings show that each of the three aforementioned types of flood shelters has their pros and cons, and considering the need and aspiration of communities, one particular type of flood shelter might not be suitable across different geographical and social contexts.

Law is a tool that can be used by interest groups to advance what they perceive to be their best interests, whether that is advocating for their right to build homes in hazard-prone environments or advocating against such development because of the social and economic costs of disasters. Identifying how interests are to be balanced, and responsibility for disaster risk reduction is to be shared, requires more than knowledge of local law. The allocation of responsibility must be negotiated with stakeholders, negotiation that takes place in the “shadow of the law,” that is, with an expectation of what the law requires and how others may behave to comply with legal obligations.

Comparisons between disasters and violent conflicts are often noted by political figures and in the news media, and those responding to conflicts and disasters witness similarities on the ground. In contrast, the academic fields studying violent conflicts and so-called natural disasters have developed separately, and practitioners usually separate the two phenomena as soon as the emergency response is over. This chapter, based on interviews with practitioners and a review of scholarly literature, makes a case for increased cross-disciplinary dialogue. We identify common consequences, responses, and even causes of conflicts and disasters. We argue that more and better partnerships between those who work on conflicts and those who work on disasters can lead to advances in understanding and responding to conflicts and disasters.

People traumatized by disaster also report that healing effects come to them as well. Known as either the therapeutic or altruistic community, survivors describe beneficial effects from interacting with those who come to help. This chapter describes the historical context of the therapeutic community, conditions that give rise to therapeutic benefits, and the range of the community's effects. The chapter also critiques the concept of a therapeutic community for empirical investigation. Relying on the extant, albeit limited, literature, the chapter also explains the ways in which practitioners might generate and use a therapeutic community.

Environmental and technological disasters, extractive industries, river mismanagement, and climate change are drastically transforming coastal Louisiana's sea- and landscape. The environmental degradation and related social, cultural, health, and economic impacts are particularly significant for Louisiana's tribal communities that have called the region home for centuries. Despite being faced with an uncertain future of whether the diminishing land they live on will stay above the rising tide, the tribes still persist and continue to adapt to a changing environment and a transforming subsistence-based livelihood. This chapter focuses on the everyday strategies the tribes and residents employ to be included in hurricane protection systems, maintain their communities and culture, be included as citizens and acknowledged as Natives. As communities around the world face increasing impacts and challenges from global environmental change and dominant political, economic, and social structures and ideologies, it is important to look not just at the forms of resistance that make headlines but also the everyday forms. It is through both the everyday practices and locally formed partnerships that a democratization of the adaptation process could emerge, one that includes decision-making based on more equitable distribution of knowledge sharing and integration, public participation, local input, and science and multiple perspectives.

This closing chapter draws together overall emerging points from the volume, having resonance with societal aspects of the wider series of which this is a part. It offers reflection and guidance for an expanding field of study built from the rationale outlined in the Introduction with summative comments influenced by the three chapter sections. It is concluded that dealing with hazards, risks, and disasters in society requires an understanding of cognition and behavior and would require a cultural shift for much of humankind. Although a definitive checklist of actions to be taken is beyond the realms of any one volume, previous learning and the insights that are on the whole empirically presented within this volume indicate processes that are required to progress for the better.

This chapter explores the impact of disasters on women and girls, with particular reference to the context of the developing world. It critically explores the conceptual and theoretical basis for assuming that a differential impact exists. It highlights that disasters are gendered events and women and girls experience them differently from men, suffering longer term and more intangible impacts such as a rise in violence or greater insecurity in employment. Given women and girls are impacted more and differently than men and boys, it might be expected gender issues would be a key policy concern, yet the chapter highlights that gender is still excluded from much policy on disaster risk reduction. Drawing on the lessons learned from processes to “engender development,” it suggests that, although exclusion remains an issue, how women are included in disaster risk reduction and response can also raise concerns. It concludes by highlighting that tackling gendered risk demands both a reconceptualization of “disaster” and for disasters to become a development issue.

The present chapter describes two decades of disaster volunteers in Japan and draws out implications for society. According to the author's own long-term fieldwork and participation in a nonprofit organization, an ethnographic history of disaster volunteers is described. It is divided into four stages. The first stage is the dawn of disaster volunteers after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The powerful drive of institutionalization over the expansion of disaster volunteerism occurred at the second stage. In the third stage, an extension of activities occurred. Finally, at the fourth stage, currently a networking of volunteers is moving against the drive for institutionalization. This discussion is followed by an example of action research for keeping a disaster volunteers network embedded in Japanese society. The author attempted to motivate previous survivors to help survivors of the Tohoku region in East Japan in return for the support they had received in the past. It is concluded that the almost two decades of disaster volunteerism give us a glimpse of the future of Japanese society with the network of disaster volunteers, which would work against the drive for institutionalization, at least, intermittently.