Module description
The module will review the history of hazards research from religious based explanations of environmental hazards, to more scientific and engineering based approaches, to the recent shift towards political economic and discourse based reasons for human vulnerability to hazards. The discussion of hazards will be specifically nested within broader concerns with human environment interactions and environmental thought from the paleolithic, neolithic, classical and ultimately modern period.
Having established the temporal and spatial context of hazards research and human experience of hazards, the concept of hazardscapes will be introduced as a hybrid perspective emphasizing both the material and discursive underpinnings of vulnerability to hazards. Through the second half of the module the concept of hazardscapes will be discussed with reference to such topical concerns as geographies of development and underdevelopment, gender, terrorism and violence, and disaster relief and recovery. The module will conclude with an exploration of pathways for building resilience against hazards and politically emancipatory and socially just conceptions of sustainable development
Assessment details
Individual Poster (30%), 2000 word (or equivalent) assessment (70%)
Educational aims & objectives
To familiarize students with cultural, political economic, pragmatic and technocratic perspectives used to explain and sometimes spawn hazardousness of everyday life. To educate students that those hazards are not accidental interruptions of ‘normal’ life but rather integral to the social geographies that modern societies have produced. The integrative concept of ‘hazardscapes’ will be introduced to capture the discursive and material aspects of environmental and social hazards, e.g floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions etc. Hazardous environments in both the rich and the poorer parts of the world will be critically evaluated from multiple theoretical perspectives to formulate strategies for enhancing human safety and environmental quality.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the module the students will be able to demonstrate:
- Sound knowledge of multiple theories used within the hazards, environment/society, and development geography subfields within human geography.
- Sound knowledge of the key concepts of vulnerability, exposure, risk and disaster risk reduction as they pertain to economic development.
- Critical understanding of hazard perceptions at the individual, community, institutional and societal scales.
- Critical thinking about prevailing policies, ‘common wisdom’ and stereotypes about hazard response, planning and reconstruction.
Teaching pattern
20hrs lectures