Associate Professor in Sociology of Sustainability at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia.
Associate Professor in Communication Studies at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia.
Disasters. 2022 Jul;46(3):742-767. doi: 10.1111/disa.12481. Epub 2022 Apr 11.
While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners' approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for major hazards and could be adapted further to particular types of disasters.
尽管面对灾害时的社会脆弱性越来越受到学术界的关注，但人们对于参与灾害管理的机构在实践中在多大程度上反映了这方面的知识却知之甚少。本研究描述了八个欧洲国家（比利时、爱沙尼亚、芬兰、德国、匈牙利、意大利、挪威和瑞典）的从业者在灾害脆弱性方面的做法。它借鉴了比较文件分析和 95 次与灾害管理者的访谈，揭示了各国在脆弱性本体论、其根源、减少策略以及相关职责分配方面的显著差异。为了推动辩论并提供概念上的清晰性，我们提出了一个启发式模型，以便沿着人类能动性和技术结构以及通过私人关系和国家行为者提供的社会支持的维度促进对脆弱性的不同理解。这可以指导对重大灾害的风险分析和规划，并可以进一步适用于特定类型的灾害。
