Dear All,
Philip Buckle (Coventry University) and I have started up a new Study Group
on Disasters and Development within the UK Development Studies Association
(DSA).
The inaugural meeting was held a few weeks ago, hosted at the University of
Greenwich in London. About 50 people attended from NGOs, academia, DFID and
independent consultants. Although called a Study Group, we intend it to
include action as well. The first open meeting was on the problems of
long-term recovery and development after the tsunami disaster, especially
given how the media defined the event as an emergency requiring relief.
The next activity will follow up on this problem of how the media
constructs disasters in this way, and will be a panel discussion of
journalists, NGOs, Red Cross and others involved in the tsunami and other
disasters. This will be a session that forms part of the DSA Annual
Conference, taking place at the Open University in Milton Keynes, 7-9
September 2005.
The group also held its first business meeting to define its terms of
reference and set out its initial plan of action. Papers and programme for
the open meeting on the tsunami are available at the Group's page on the
DSA website:
http://www.devstud.org.uk/studygroups/disasters.htm
The TORs and plan of action for the group will follow shortly also on this
page.
Information about the DSA annual conference is available at:
http://www.devstud.org.uk/
With good wishes
Terry Cannon (University of Greenwich, London).
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