Welcome to a research blog on disaster response

This research presents my research in sustainability and resilience in disaster response and emergency shelter. It is based on my fieldwork in Jogyakarta, Indonesia in 2008, and my research for an honour thesis in Human Ecology at the Australian National University. There will be no more updates for this blog, but I am continuing the work through the Humanitarian Bamboo project.

Resilience and change in disaster response

After our discussions on transformational change and its application in sustainability research at the Human Ecology Forum last Friday, I've been thinking about sustainability, resilience and change in disaster response. I'm thinking about the ubiquitous motto "Build Back Better" used across the humanitarian sector - from the FAO to UNICEF to the shelter sector, where people are literally building back better. But I’ve been wondering what it actually means in terms of resilience and change to communities: build back better = build back different? Whose idea of better?

Sustainable international disaster response

We've having an online discussion exploring the concept of sustainable practice in international disaster response. This blog post is still developing: I'm asking contributions from a range of my informants, including disaster workers, Western and Indonesian academics, and disaster workers, to share their opinions about would a sustainable disaster response look like.

The role of the international humanitarian sector in disaster response

The focus of my thesis is to explore sustainable practice in international disaster response. As a result, I've recently been asking a number of my informants to share their opinions about what is, or should be, the role of the international humanitarian sector in disaster response.

Poverty-related trends in disaster response: the Global Poverty Project

I recently heard that the Global Poverty Project is looking for research assistants. Cool!! So just for fun, I thought I'd do a special post on poverty-related trends in disaster response. It begins with an interview with Dave Hodgkin, an emergency shelter and sustainable housing consultant ...

Asides

• New Mandala recently posted an interview with a disaster worker who recently returned from working in the Cyclone Nargis response in Myanmar. Interesting comments on working with the Government of Myanmar, difficulties of access to information in an environment characterised by mistrust and secrecy, and comments on the Cluster system. #
• The Global Poverty Project is scouting for people here. Applications close 26 September. #
• RedR India shelter training on “Settlement Planning and Shelter in Emergencies”, Pondicherry, India, 26-29 August 2008. #
• ESA's 94th annual meeting next year on the theme of 'Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society'. Keywords: ecological research, attention to public policy concerns, creating a global sustainable society, ecological knowledge. Hmmm... #
• The very excellent EMA library in Mt Macedon, Victoria posts hard-to-find books and photocopied journal articles out to its borrowers across Australia. #
• An experiment in developing an online community and digital repository for the ANU's Human Ecology Forum: another project of mine. #
• The Jogya Consultative Forum on 26 June. Powerpoints from the speakers, notes from me, photos. Part of the Humanitarian Bamboo Project. #
• Great concept mapping / content mapping software from Tufts Uni that I've been using for all my visual diagrams. #
• The Humanitarian Bamboo project led by Dave Hodgkin. #
• Environmental Bamboo Foundation's website (EBF are based in Bali, Indonesia). #