Reducing disaster risks 1980–2010: Some reflections and speculations
Through personal reflections on themes covering past experiences, the author considers selected experiences of disaster risk management (DRM) that span 30 years of DRM, and makes some speculations concerning the future, and ponders whether within the selected themes the future looks positive or negative. The observations begin with some memories of the Ocho Rios Conference: a multi disciplinary expedition to examine housing and hazards in Pakistan; issues concerning education and training; and finally the success of a massive reconstruction project of rural dwellings in Pakistan following the 2005 earthquake. Some key questions are considered: the value of community-based risk management; the reduction of short- or long-term risks; the protection of critical facilities; whose reality is being addressed? official neglect of education for DRM; the conditions needed to create highly effective safe reconstruction in rural Pakistan.
Disaster by Design: corruption, construction and catastrophe
An underlying assumption of this paper is that many 'natural' disasters are the direct outcome of 'deviant' political and economic decisions and actions by states. While focusing on three recent major earthquakes in Turkey, the paper explores the dynamic relationship between state power, corruption, corporate power and, to a limited extent, organized crime in the context of examining responsibility for earthquake-precipitated catastrophe. It documents the 'network of responsibilities, opportunities and pressures' which combine as state crime to create earthquake disasters involving mass human rights violations. The paper argues for a reinterpretation of natural disasters in terms of human rights violations, while developing themes around state culpability which first emerged in an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study undertaken by the author (with Al Hussaini and Curry) on the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey.
Local economic development, decentralisation and consensus building in Turkey
Abstract This study explores the prospects of decentralisation and consensus building within the context of local economic development in Turkey. The broad theoretical concern of this research is the tension between the centre and periphery in the governance structure of Turkey. Over 80 interviews from three rapidly growing medium-sized cities, Denizli, Gaziantep and Kayseri, indicate that considerable decentralisation in recent decades has enabled municipalities and local groups to formulate and realise local projects. However, detailed case studies from Kayseri illustrate both the importance of kinship and social ties in forming alliances and identifying priorities in local politics. Charismatic individuals play a crucial role in initiating and driving local projects. The experience of Kayseri in local economic development through local initiatives demonstrates the current battles among different civic groups, numerous economic interests, and the national party agendas of political leaders. The study concludes that decentralisation has to be considered together with enhancing participatory democracy in governance at the local and national levels in Turkey. This transformation can only be achieved with a strong and credible state. The importance of a strong and credible state is even greater in the absence of a supranational body like the European Union within which localities can co-operate and interact. Perhaps more importantly, in the wake of unpredictable distortions imposed on localities by the globalisation of economic and financial activities, localities need a safeguarding national and/or supra-national mechanism in governance as well as in policy design.