Riesgos al Sur: diversidad de riesgos de desastres en Argentina (Risks Southwards: Diversity of Risks in Disaster-Related Contexts for Argentina)

Citation

Maximiliano Emanuel Korstanje (2016), "Riesgos al Sur: diversidad de riesgos de desastres en Argentina (Risks Southwards: Diversity of Risks in Disaster-Related Contexts for Argentina)", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 423-426. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-03-2016-0047

Our contemporary society faces a state of fear, where risks are inflated to the extent of frightening lay-people. Any event at time of happening resonates in seconds in an international audience which is sensitive to what Baudrillard dubbed “the spectacle of disaster.” …of course, the heated discussion between probabilists and constructivists on the nature of risk seems to be far from being closed. While for probabilists risks are object likelihoods which can be forecasted using mathematical algorithms, some other voices alluded to the socio cultural logic of risks, which vary on culture, time and person. In retrospect risks are cognitively selected according to a much deeper preceding background. Those threatening risks that loom some cultures are ignored in others (Korstanje, 2010, 2015).

In this context, Fernando Briones and Jesica Viand present an edited book, Riesgos Al Sur (Risks Southwards), conformed 17 ground-breaking chapters that focus on risk-management as the shared-thread argument. The content is organized in seven sections which may be very well-read separately but keeping a similarly minded viewpoint. The main goal of this project discusses the upsurge of multi-layered risks in Argentina, South America. Policy makers should contemplate the importance of nation-state as well as private sector in drawing programs of risk-contention. This excellent project which is based on the risk-management fields helps readers understanding social background that lead society to disasters. In this vein, Argentina is a country unprepared to face global risks and disasters. By the introduction, editors explain that the book derived from light-hearted talks in Buenos Aires, Argentina which were crystalized in a summit later (Taller Regional de Gestion de Riesgos de Desastres en Latinoamerica y Caribe – Regional course of Risk Management with focus in disasters for Latin America and Caribe) hosted by ROLAC and CONICET. The original goals were aimed at discussing risk-management programs to prevent real disasters in Argentina, and other Latin American countries. Their main obstacle to overcome was a shared meaning of risks beyond the current fragmentation of knowledge. Since each discipline has developed its definition of risk, it was a task very hard to grasp. Though risks and hazards go elsewhere through society affecting the lives of all citizens, a new political order surfaced where privileged groups are those who have developed the necessary technologies to mitigate risks leaving lower classes powerless to their fate. The material asymmetries produced by capitalism equals to long-simmering structural inequalities that not only affects victims but has an impact in how risks are handled. This is the moot-point discussed by Diego Rios and Lucila Moreno, who from different angles and approaches center his analysis on gated-communities affect the urban fabric which is more vulnerable to floods. The case of Sanctuary of Cromañón, a sacred shrine erected to rememorize a made-man disaster where 194 youth lost their lives, was addressed by Diego Zenobi. By the induction to an interesting ethnography, Zenobi observes that the sanctuary sublimates by the pain of victims and survivors that sometimes are in opposition to political status-quo. In this respect, Susann Baez Ulberg addresses the floods in Santa Fe dated back in 2003 with more than 130,000 evacuees in which case it prompted a strong protest against officialdom. For popular parlance it resulted in the decline of nation-state after stock-market crisis in 2001 that undermined the social trust of citizens in their politicians. As many of the revised chapters in this book, she contends that memory exerts the right to remind but at the same time forget something. The discourse in the memorials of disasters seems to be politically selected. At a closer look, the same argument remains in next chapters authored by Tamara Beltramino (fifth) who traces an historical background of floods in Santa Fe from 1982 up to date, Eduardo Aguirre Madariaga (sixth) exploring the dichotomies of urban growth which intersected with the lack of planning or even Hortensia Castro, a well-read scholar who analyzes the environmental risk in Quebrada de Humahuaca that is sensitive to floods and hydraulic issues. Precisely, Madariaga’s case represents the most seminal section of the book since it exhibits considerable success policies in the application of risk-management for the country. After several years of testing and errors, from 2007 onwards, a new all-encompassing program was implemented to reduce risks of floods in Santa Fe. It consisted in a combination of educational alternatives and necessary legal transformations that contributed in the configuration of a sustainable ethos to mitigate the negative effects of past floods.

The coherent diagnosis in addressing the roots of disasters helps communities to conduct faster process of recoveries. In so doing, scientists should expand the current understanding of disasters and their potential effects on more vulnerable groups. This discussion can be found in the chapter authored by Martin DeMaria (fires in Cordoba), Agustina Girardo and Soledad Iturralde (focussing on the anthropological factors of risk in la Pampa), Anabel Calvo and Sandra Pereira (working on risk-management toolkits in farming, Miriam Teresita Aparicio and Isabel Balmaceda (educative programs of evacuation in quake contexts), or Carolina Domizio, Francisco Calderon and Noemi Maldonado (risks in schooling and schools in seismic zones) among others. The final chapters are finely-ingrained into sixth section entirely dedicated to volcano activity in La Patagonia and Southern Coast in its effects on civil society (Murgida, Gentile, Torrens, Jurio, Membribe, Perez, Outes, Villarosa, Demenico, Gomez, Lissarague, Beigt, Manzoni, Arretche, Ferrari & Monti). As a large country rich in multi-layered geographies, Argentina needs from risk-management programs to make from urban spaces a better place to live. As Gabriel Asato noted, the new ICTs may help in rationalizing the available information to prevent situation of chaos and decontrol in disaster-related contexts. Digital information plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative aftermaths of disasters.

Although the reviewed piece offers an all-encompassing diagnosis in the potential risks Argentina faces, little attention was drawn to the dependency of victims and financial assistance of nation-state in post disaster environs. As the floods in La Plata evinced, there is a global tendency for state to ask for soft loans to assist victims and survivors instead of intervening directly on the recovery process. Instead of solving the complex glitches that made the disaster possible, states are prone to lend money. This slippery matter was widely studied by Haigh and Amaratunga (2010) throughout build environment literature. Far from been shortened, the financial dependency of elite and less privileged-classes is enlarged after the disasters beats. It is unfortunate that a vicious circle surfaces, where financial capitals needs from disasters to survive. At some extent, many nation states usher victims in the needs of soliciting a loan to banking system to reconstruct the community posing a serious ethical dilemma for the paradigm of well-fare state. As Naomi Klein puts it, not only capitalism overcomes adverse situations but also generates further profits and dependency once the disasters obliterated a whole part of community. Disasters are commoditized to produce further disasters and so forth. It triggers a hot debate which merits to be discussed in next layouts.

References

Haigh, R. and Amaratunga, D. (2010), “An integrative review of the built environment discipline’s role in the development of society’s resilience to disasters”, International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 11-24.

Klein, N. (2007), The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Macmillan, New York, NY.

Korstanje, M. (2010), “Commentaries on our new ways of perceiving disasters”, International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 241-248.

Korstanje, M.E. (2015), A Difficult World: Examining the Roots of Capitalism, Nova Science Publishers, New York, NY.

Editors’ response

From the perspective of sociology, one of the most complicated tasks about disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management consists in recognizing that nature is insensitive of human cognition. However, her effects can be mitigated in order for community to experience a security enhancement. In doing so, science is entitled to find and correct those glitches which make the society more vulnerable. The same technology leads society to a state of emergency can be used to save lives ….

Despite the fact that more than three decades of literature about social vulnerability and risk-management have passed, institutional agencies and researchers are focussing much more in the intensity of hazards as a way to prevent high-impact disasters. As this review mentioned before, the probabilistic approach is dominating face constructivist one. Besides, the “root-causes” approach (Wisner et al., 2003) seems to be an academic task and their management impacts need to be improved in order to prevent low impact and long term disasters as well. As Korstanje says, knowledge fragmentation is one of the main obstacles and more has to be done about this variable (Spiekermann et al., 2015).

In “Riesgos al Sur” we highlight the importance of using DRR as politics of state, taking into consideration not surprisingly that Argentina with its varied topography is subject to many disasters. Up to date, we had no opportunity to gather a collection formed with chapters that explored the problems and challenge the discipline shows for a near future. Of course, our experience reminds that this book is not the pillar of disaster-related studies in Argentina, but poses as a fascinating experience facilitated by the editorial Board of LA RED which neglected other types of disaster study cases as quakes, droughts. As this reviewer puts it, much more work needs to be developed in view of the financial dependency of communities and business corporations. Our compromise was given to forge a conceptual platform of debate so that DDR research can be continued in Argentina and serves as example for other Latin American countries. A second problem of applied research seems to be the lack of an academy and specialized journals in Latin America that gather all produced-knowledge or studies. As a result of this, researchers are limited to submit their advances in journals coming from other sub-disciplines than risk-reduction management. This was the reason why we coordinated efforts to edit this book which not only includes academic chapters but also personal experience of well-skilled professionals in DRR. Though much remains to be done, we trust that we have done enough ….