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-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Burton <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sep 26, 2017 5:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Call for a shift from DDR to RDRC (Resistance to Disaster Risk Creation)!<[log in to unmask]> Hello Ben and Allan, Congratulations on the paper. Very timely. As you know it is very much along the lines that some of use have been promoting under the label of FORIN - forensic investigations of disaster - seeking the underlying causes. For myself I would prefer a change from DRR to DRC …. just three letters for disaster risk creation. The general path of growth and development which is being followed today is cresting more risks than are being reduced by Sendai etc.With reference to the message from Vivienne I am unenthusiastic about the term “resilience” partly because of its use in the climate field. The more developed and bigger greenhouse gas emitting countries have been on the defensive because the LDCs and small island states and others tend to blame them for the impacts of climate change to which they are exposed and ask for help in meeting the costs of adaptation. They want more than help in some cases and are asking the big emitters to compensate them for loss and damage. So i see the use of the word “resilient” as a way of refusing to pay or reducing expectations by saying - “be resilient” or “look after yourself better”. Its the same message for disasters … instead of looking to the international community for help - be resilient.So …. resilient? - No! Disaster risk creation? Yes.Sorry for the rant! IanIan Burton
Independent Scholar & Consultant
Emeritus Professor, University of Toronto
Telephone 416.538.2034On Sep 26, 2017, at 5:41 PM, Vivienne Bryner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:Hello Ben,I couldn't resist responding ....A question and a few brief comments from a New Zealander who, having completed a PhD on the ‘communication of DRR’ now puts food on the table as a ‘risk and opportunities advisor’ to organisations (central and local government and corporates).
On the one hand I applaud the intention to shift the focus to human causes.
However, I ask what (apart from the multitude of different definitions) leads you to suggest a new term, rather than the simpler, and already embraced – “Resilience” – particularly since it is:
1) desired end-state focussed
2) applicable from individuals to family groups, communities and organisations
3) scaleable in other ways; and is
4) already being embraced by communities who have experienced disasters
If we focussed on actions to achieve a desired state we would avoid having to ‘fight’ (resist), and shift attention from arguments related to risk identification (likelihood or scale of consequence), or post-event blame and recrimination.
Citizens – a group that includes us, as well as experts in fields other than our own, and policy- and decision-makers - grapple with the term ‘disaster risk reduction’. I suggest this suggested new complex term, which leads to yet another acronym, would similarly confuse, and perpetuate activity around redefinition, rather than desired benefits / outcome-focussed actions.
There is an exciting groundswell of effort at all levels of society in New Zealand toward doing things differently.
However that is not only ‘building back better’ after recent disasters, or business continuity planning for specific shocks.
NZ organisations and cross-sector working groups I come across are increasingly embracing an all hazards-all risks approach, and adopting programmes of work that aim for “the ability to thrive in a world of uncertainty and survive a crisis” (a phrase I’ve adopted from Resilient Organisations - http://www.resorgs.org.nz, though I have switched it around to focus on opportunity first, then make reference to disaster/crisis).
Resilience is a concept that, in my experience, individuals and organisations are easily able to accept as a desirable vision, despite its ‘amorphous’ definition, and recognise that there are a multitude of intermediate steps toward that goal that are achievable in ‘everyday life’ or ‘business as usual’.
Kind regards,
Vivienne.
Vivienne Bryner, PhDRisk and opportunities advisorKowhiti - revealing the possibility+64 21 298 5453On 27 September 2017 at 09:40, Ben Wisner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:Dear colleagues,
Please find attached a keynote presentation I gave on behalf of Allan Lavell, my co-author, and myself at Durham University on 20 September 2017, in the course of the "Dealing with Disasters" conference.
Allan and I would love comments, objections, additions (especially case studies and data), and, above all, insight into current and possible lines of RESISTANCE.
Best,
BEN
Dr. Ben Wisner
Visiting Professor, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, UK
& Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA
Dr. Ben Wisner Visiting Professor, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, UK & Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA