Empowering Children to Lead Change: Incorporating Preparedness Curricula in the K-12 Educational System
Abstract : A combination of both man-made and natural disasters in recent years has revitalized the concept of civil preparedness and defense in the United States. During the State of the Union Address in 2002, President George W. Bush announced the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Citizen Corps, a component of the USA Freedom Corps initiative developed shortly after 9/11. Additionally, FEMA launched the "Are You Ready?" campaign to provide individuals, families, and communities with in-depth preparedness information and training, and the American Red Cross developed its own educational disaster preparedness program designed to coincide with the daily threat level. While the various programs include several common themes, including a special emphasis on disaster preparedness for children, they lack promotion, visibility, standardization, and coordination. Empowering children to lead change by teaching families and other citizens is one possible methodology to enhance visibility and inspire participation in such programs. This thesis examines the pros and cons of historical and current citizen preparedness campaigns and K-12 preparedness curricula, other countries' approaches to citizen preparedness, elements of successful preparedness programs, Homeland Security stakeholder benefits of preparedness programs for children, and potential arguments against the implementation of such programs. The author concludes the thesis with criteria for a successful K-12 civil preparedness curriculum.
Residents' attitudes and behaviour before and after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruptions—a case study from southern Iceland
While the disruption to international air travel caused by the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010 has been well documented, the significant social impacts on local residents from ash fall to the south and east of the crater are less well-known. These impacts and attitudes of impacted residents and emergency managers are the foci of our present study. Prior to and during the eruption, officials worked to protect the local population from the glacial outburst floods (jökulhlaup) that were of primary concern. The success of these endeavours can in part be attributed to a regional evacuation exercise held in March 2006, an exercise that was carried out with respect to a possible eruption at another volcano, Katla, that is located 25 km to the east of Eyjafjallajökull. Eruptions at either volcano will impact the same communities. Our study here concentrates on Álftaver, a small farming community, located approximately 60 km east-southeast of Eyjafjallajökull and 30 km southeast of Katla. Álftaver has been the subject of longitudinal studies carried out in 2004, 2006, and 2008; these studies highlighted the difficulties that emergency managers face in developing appropriate response strategies acceptable to vulnerable communities. The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruptions presented an opportunity to re-assess residents' attitudes and behaviour in relation to volcanic risk management in the wake of their first-hand experiences with volcanic hazards. To achieve this, interviews were conducted with residents and emergency management officials and a questionnaire was distributed to residents. This paper presents the results of this survey and examines changes in attitudes towards volcanic risk management. It was apparent that the experience of ash fall from Eyjafjallajökull provided a better perspective of what could be expected from a Katla eruption and that attitudes towards emergency management had evolved accordingly. Importantly, officials' perceptions of risk are now more aligned with those of residents and both recognise the need for more detailed and concise information regarding the impacts of ash fall during and following volcanic eruptions.
Mandating Identity: Citizenship, Kinship Laws and Plural Nationality in the European Union
For over a century it has been the case that a person exists, at least for legal purposes, only after she has been recognized by the state. As a unique element of this acknowledgement, nationality has also been an essential component of individual identity. Now, under pressure from a variety of directions, the nature of the link between state and individual is changing, with as yet unclear implications and long-term effects. In this original and insightful analysis, Eniko Horvath focuses on three processes of legal evolution in Europe that affect the meaning of membership and individual identity: the increasing salience of supranational culture and rights; kinship; legislation privileging non-nationals with linguistic, cultural, and ethnic ties to a given state; and the emergence of plural nationality as an acceptable (and even welcome) phenomenon.The author's treatment is notable for its informed appreciation of both the content of relevant European and national laws and the ways in which these laws are embedded in particular social and political frameworks. In addition to extending the legal theory on citizenship and nationality, the analysis draws on sociology, social psychology, and political theory to anchor its insights and recommendations. After two in-depth chapters introducing the complexities of the subject matter, three distinct but interwoven chapters show how each of the three processes has unfolded in a given context, offer detailed explanations and suggestions as to why each development has occurred in the manner that it has, and discuss the legal, political, and sociological issues raised by the particular development.A comprehensive reference section with extensive lists of laws, cases, and scholarship concludes the volume. It is likely that this book will come to be recognized as a foundational work in the legal analysis of the concept of cultural identity, and especially its role in setting norms of membership, as that way of seeing the world becomes ever more clearly defined in coming decades. It is sure to be not only studied and cited by academics and legal theorists, but of special value also to policymakers in the areas of nationality and citizenship.