Disaster Archipelago: Locating Vulnerability and Resilience in the Philippines

(Hardback)

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Description

Images of the devastation wreaked by typhoons, flooding, earthquakes and drought in the Philippines circulate globally as an important part of disaster discourses. This collection seeks to move beyond these simplistic representations of calamity by bringing together a group of Filipino and international scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to grapple with the complex nature of disaster in the Philippines. Firmly grounded in the relationship between disaster and place, the volumes contributors confront the challenges of the Philippine nations internal heterogeneity of language, ethnicity and class. In doing so, this book seeks to engage the specificities of place amid diversity, and explores two broad but interrelating avenues of investigation through case studies drawn from across the archipelago: How can environmental extremity in the Philippines help us understand disasters How can disasters help us understand the Philippines

Reviews

The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and this edited collection brings together several anthropological studies examining disaster management in the island nation. Each chapter is a separate study focusing on a different disaster management issue or on a community or population that was devastated by disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes. The studies investigate disaster coping strategies, including humanitarian intervention, protection of vulnerable populations, post-disaster accountability, disaster resilience, insecurity and inequality of livelihood supplies, community-engaged aid programs, and implementation and evaluation of aid programs, among others. Chapters also examine social and cultural factors that impact and are impacted by coping strategies, such as local and federal governance, political-economic constraints, disaster preparedness by communities and the government, and the role of sociocultural traditions in coping with disasters. Importantly, disasters are not only viewed as natural phenomena but also as social justice issues. Overall, the anthropologists and scholars who contribute to this volume provide a panoramic view of disaster management in the Philippines as well as useful insights for global disaster studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Author Bio

Maria Carinnes P. Alejandria is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Santo Tomas. Will Smith is associate research fellow at Deakin University.