Description
Book SynopsisUnnatural Disasters offers a new perspective on our most pressing environmental and social challenges, revealing the gaps between abstract concepts like sustainability, resilience, and innovation and the real-world experiences of the people living at risk.
Trade ReviewIn this book, Gonzalo Lizarralde tackles some of the most pressing and difficult questions the world faces today as we struggle to adapt to climate change and intensified disasters. The result is a valuable and unique compendium of wisdom and experience, full of insight into both environmental problems and human nature. -- David Alexander, professor of risk and disaster reduction, University College London
Lizarralde provides an erudite and searing critique of the development paradigm and its buzzwords, and ultimately challenges the reader to find hope in the courage and leadership of the oppressed. The highly accessible stories contained in this book radically humanize and uplift people experiencing the long-term process of a disaster.
Unnatural Disasters is a call to repoliticize our narratives and consider our participation in this site of contested power. -- Jason von Meding, M. E. Rinker Sr. School of Construction Management, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience, University of Florida
This book explains the contentious and complex topic of why disasters are not natural in an accessible and passionate way. It also challenges our current thinking by highlighting the gaps that we need to bridge in order to limit risk creation. Lizarralde’s account of ordinary people’s experiences is wonderful and will help readers connect with the issue. -- Ksenia Chmutina, coauthor of
Disaster Risk Reduction for the Built EnvironmentThis book draws on Lizarralde’s long experience as a scholar and practitioner to examine, in an engaging prose and with a sharp eye, the roots, complexities, and consequences of what he lucidly calls “unnatural disasters” and responses to them. By taking an intellectual scalpel to commonly held assumptions and conventional solutions, backed by rigorously researched case studies in a social justice framework,
Unnatural Disasters makes an important contribution to development scholarship, policy formulation, and practice. -- Julio D. Dávila, professor of urban policy and international development, University College London
Lizarralde provides a powerful critique of naïve expectations and superficial narratives regarding sustainable postdisaster reconstruction. * H-Environment *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “It Won’t Be Easy, But We Have Little Choice”
1. Causes: “Disasters Happen for a Reason”
2. Change: “They Want to Build Something Modern Here”
3. Sustainability: “They Often Come Here with Their Talk About Green Solutions”
4. Resilience: “They Say That We Must Adapt”
5. Participation: “They Want Us to Participate in the Construction of I-Don’t-Know-What”
6. Innovation: “We Need Something Really Innovative, They Said”
7. Decision-Making: “We Want to Be Able to Make Our Own Decisions”
8. Humility: “The Damn Circumstance of Water Everywhere”
Notes
Index
