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The Cure for Catastrophe
Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons – we watch in horror before springing into action with aid and support, shocked again and again by the destructive power of the earth. Except these disasters aren’t only the earth’s doing, they are ours too. Why did no one consider that a tsunami could disable the nuclear power plants in Fukushima? Why did so many die when Katrina flooded New Orleans? Not so long ago we could only focus on rescuing and sheltering survivors – now we can anticipate many natural disasters and plan for them. In dozens of cities around the world, we’re able to identify the specific buildings that will be shaken apart, blown down or reduced to rubble. Yet every...
Disasters in World History
Disasters in World History surveys the development of disaster studies as a discipline as well as presenting historical case studies and theories used by historians to understand disasters. Disasters, here defined as the complex interaction between natural hazards and specific human vulnerabilities, have frequently left a mark on human history. Cataclysms have toppled dynasties, fueled massacres, and shaped the culture of societies frequently affected by natural hazards. This volume fosters understanding of such events by considering both social science theory and the natural science concepts relevant to disaster studies. In addition, the text makes heavy use of an emerging psychological the...
Cultures of Disaster
In this fascinating and comprehensive study, Greg Bankoff traces the history of natural hazards in the Philippines from the records kept by the Spanish colonisers to the 'Calamitous Nineties', and assesses the effectiveness of the relief mechanisms that have evolved to cope with these occurrences. He also examines the correlation between this history of natural disasters and the social hierarchy within Filipino society. The constant threat of disaster has been integrated into the schema of daily life to such an extent that a 'culture of disaster' has been formed.
The Legacy of Hurricane Mitch
Around the world disaster vulnerability is on the rise. The incidence and intensity of disasters have increased in recent decades with lives being shattered and resources being destroyed across broad geographic regions each year. As it swept across the Honduran landscape, the exceptional size, power and duration of Hurricane Mitch abruptly and brutally altered the already diminished economic, social, and environmental conditions of the population. In the aftermath of the disaster a group of seven socio-environmental scientists set out to investigate the root causes of the heightened vulnerability that characterized pre-Mitch Honduras, the impact of the catastrophe on the local society, and t...
Cultivating the Colonies
The essays collected in Cultivating the Colonies demonstrate how the relationship between colonial power and nature revealsthe nature of power. Each essay explores how colonial governments translated ideas about the management of exoticnature and foreign people into practice, and how they literally “got their hands dirty” in the business of empire. The eleven essays include studies of animal husbandry in the Philippines, farming in Indochina, and indigenous medicine in India. They are global in scope, ranging from the Russian North to Mozambique, examining the consequences of colonialismon nature, including its impact on animals, fisheries, farmlands, medical practices, and even the diets of indigenouspeople. Cultivating the Colonies establishes beyond all possible doubt the importance of the environment as a locus for studyingthe power of the colonial state.
American Colonial Spaces in the Philippines
American Colonial Spaces in the Philippines tells the story of U.S. colonialists who attempted, in the first decades of the twentieth century, to build an enduring American empire in the Philippines through the production of space. From concrete interventions in infrastructure, urban planning, and built environments to more abstract projects of mapping and territorialization, the book traces the efforts of U.S. Insular Government agents to make space for empire in the Philippines through forms of territory, map, landscape, and road, and how these spaces were understood as solutions to problems of colonial rule. Through the lens of space, the book offers an original history of a highly transf...
'Performing’ Nature
This book is the first to explore the interconnections between ecology and performance in South Asia. Aiming to ‘green’ studies of music and performance, this book explores intersections between ethnography, history, eco- and ethnomusicology, and film and performance studies by paying particular attention to the ecological turn more broadly visible in South Asian studies. The essays in the volume take inspiration from these different methodological strains in recent scholarship connecting the environment with South Asian music and performance traditions. The contributors address varied ecological settings of South Asian music and performance—from riverscapes to coastal communities, and...
Healing the Herds
Healing the Herds: Disease, Livestock Economies, and the Globalization of Veterinary Medicine offers a new and exciting comparative approach to the complex interrelationships of microbes, markets, and medicine in the global economy. It draws upon fourteen case studies from the Americas, western Europe, and the European and Japanese colonies to illustrate how the rapid growth of the international trade in animals through the nineteenth century engendered the spread of infectious diseases, sometimes with devastating consequences for indigenous pastoral societies. At different times and across much of the globe, livestock epidemics have challenged social order and provoked state interventions, ...
