C7827 - LABORATORIO SU DISASTRI E DISUGUAGLIANZE: TERRITORI, PRATICHE E STRATEGIE

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student: - possesses a critical perspective on disasters understood as socially constructed phenomena in which networks, capital, culture and inequalities determine the perception, management and consequences of risk; - is able to prepare for and participate in actions to investigate and understand vulnerability as a condition of uncertainty and fragility; - knows and can apply the dimensions of risk management between preparedness and adaptation in the age of radical environmental change.

Course contents

The course explores disasters as socially constructed phenomena, analyzing the role of inequalities, local knowledge and social networks in the production and management of risk. Through

case studies and ethnographic approaches, forms of vulnerability in specific spatial contexts are examined, with particular attention to the differential effects of disaster events. Preparedness practices and adaptation strategies to environmental changes are explored in depth, including comparative perspectives. It deepens the concept of disaster as an outcome of historical and structural processes, related to development patterns, territorial marginalization and socio-economic inequalities. The course analyzes public and media narratives of disasters, highlighting how they influence the perception of risk and the distribution of responsibility. Space is given to experiences of community resistance and self-organization with attention to situated knowledge and forms of mutualism emerging in crisis contexts. Policies of reconstruction and their impact on affected populations are studied, including in terms of access to resources and rights. The workshop offers also exercises on qualitative methods for the analysis of social and environmental vulnerability, fostering the integration of theory and research practices.

Readings/Bibliography

Centemeri, Laura, Sezin Topçu, and J. Peter Burgess, eds. Rethinking post-disaster recovery: Socio-anthropological perspectives on repairing environments. Routledge, 2021

Keucheyan, Razmig. Nature is a battlefield: Towards a political ecology. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

D. Olori (2024), “Il futuro non è scritto. Disastro, territorio e organizzazione sociale”, Orthotes: Salerno

Revet, S. and Langumier, J., eds (2015). Governing disasters: Beyond risk culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan

 

Teaching methods

Teaching will be conducted mainly through lectures, aimed at providing a theoretical and conceptual framework on the topics covered. Lectures will be accompanied by the presentation and discussion of national and international case studies, to stimulate critical comparison and linkage between theory and empirical reality. Guided readings and moments of collective reflection will be offered, useful for deepening the conceptual knots that have emerged. In some meetings, audiovisual materials (documentaries, interviews, reportage) will be shown as tools for analysis and discussion. The lectures will encourage dialogue with students, and any short classroom exercises will be aimed at stimulating attention and active understanding of the topics addressed.

Office hours

See the website of Davide Olori