Reader in the Department of Geography, King's College London, United Kingdom.
Lecturer at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Disasters. 2019 Apr;43(2):311-335. doi: 10.1111/disa.12315. Epub 2018 Nov 19.
This paper reflects critically on the results of a vulnerability assessment process at the household and community scale using a quantitative vulnerabilities and capacities index. It validates a methodology for a social vulnerability assessment at the local scale in 62 villages across four agro-ecological/livelihood zones in Sindh Province, Pakistan. The study finds that the move from vulnerability narratives to numbers improves the comparability and communicational strength of the concept. The depth and nuance of vulnerability, however, can be realised only by a return to narrative. Caution is needed, therefore: the index can be used in conjunction with qualitative assessments, but not instead of them. More substantively, the results show that vulnerability is more a function of historico-political economic factors and cultural ethos than any biophysical changes wrought by climate. The emerging gendered vulnerability picture revealed extremes of poverty and a lack of capacity to cope with contemporary environmental and social stresses.
本文批判性地反思了使用定量脆弱性和能力指数在家庭和社区层面进行脆弱性评估的结果。它验证了在巴基斯坦信德省四个农业生态/生计区的 62 个村庄中进行地方脆弱性评估的方法。研究发现，从脆弱性叙述到数字的转变提高了概念的可比性和可交流性。然而，只有通过回归叙事才能实现脆弱性的深度和细微差别。因此需要谨慎：指数可以与定性评估结合使用，但不能替代它们。更实质性的是，结果表明，脆弱性更多地是历史政治经济因素和文化风气的函数，而不是气候造成的任何生物物理变化。所揭示的新的性别脆弱性情况显示出极端贫困和缺乏应对当代环境和社会压力的能力。
