Hazards or Vulnerability? Shifting boundaries between physical and cultural geography through Disaster Research 1
The session recording will be archived on the site until June 25th, 2023
This session was streamed but not recorded
Date: 3/23/2023
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:50 AM
Room: Centennial Ballroom F, Hyatt Regency, Third Floor
Type: Paper, Hybrid session with both in-person and virtual presenters
Theme: Toward More Just Geographies
Curated Track:
Sponsor Group(s):
Cultural Geography Specialty Group, Development Geographies Specialty Group, Hazards - Risks - and Disasters Specialty Group
Organizer(s):
Ayesha Siddiqi University of Cambridge
Martha Bell Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Chair(s):
Description:
At a time when geography is making significant strides in bridging the divide between critical theory and physical geography to say something new about river pollution (Whitman et al 2015), ecosystem management (Barron et al 2015) and urban climatology (Beray-Armond 2022), disaster research seems woefully out of step. The divide between hazard and vulnerability paradigms is still going strong, where the former is seen to be the domain of physical geography, while the latter - the subject of critical theory. This sharp split between the two fields within disaster research and limited engagement on bringing critical theory into conversation with physical risk environments, has had particularly serious material and epistemic consequences in postcolonial, non-Western societies (Donovan 2010, Carrigan 2013), where ‘science’ still holds substantial political power and other ways of knowing, regularly marginalised. Critical physical geography (CPG) argues that landscapes are as much a product of “unequal power relations, histories of colonialism, and racial and gender disparities as they are of hydrology, ecology, and climate change” (Lave 2015). Is it then productive to continue constructing separate geographies of hazards, and those of risk and vulnerability within disasters research?
Presentations (if applicable) and Session Agenda:
Esméralda Longépée, Centre Universitaire de Mayotte |
Individual and collective memories of Kamisy cyclone (1984) and Feliksa tropical storm (1985) in Mayotte Island (Indian Ocean) |
Anna Bridel |
Liquefying nature: Assemblages, cyclone expertise and the possibility of alternative life-worlds |
Lauren Prince |
“With a Vengeance”: An Examination of How Black Women of the U.S. Virgin Islands Weather Disasters |
Austin Lord |
Cascading Hazards, Convergent Vulnerabilities, and Climate Justice in the Langtang Valley of Nepal |
Martha Bell |
Disaster narratives, power relations, and infrastructure: The case of El Niño flooding in peri-urban Piura, Peru |
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Hazards or Vulnerability? Shifting boundaries between physical and cultural geography through Disaster Research 1
Description
Type: Paper, Hybrid session with both in-person and virtual presenters
Date: 3/23/2023
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:50 AM
Room: Centennial Ballroom F, Hyatt Regency, Third Floor
Contact the Primary Organizer
Ayesha Siddiqi University of Cambridge
as3017@cam.ac.uk
Session Sponsored By
