Nicklas Guldåker
Universitetslektor
Preventing and Preparing for Disasters – The Role of a Swedish Local Emergent Citizen Group
Författare
Summary, in English
Disasters such as the storms that affected Sweden in 2005 and 2007 showed that
citizens initially conducted a large part of the disaster response, such as clearing roads, giving psychosocial support to affected neighbours and repairing power lines in collaboration with power companies. As a result of these storms, an Emergent Citizen Group (ECG) was established in a village which continued to work on risk prevention, even after the event. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse this local emergent citizen group’s continuing work on the prevention of local risk and vulnerability, and particularly, their work on flood prevention. The results
indicate that authorities seldom understand the ECG’s concerns about risks.
Authorities also lack the experience and capacity to collaborate with, and support, the ECG’s risk and vulnerability reduction work. Bureaucratic barriers and declining motivation among volunteers within the ECGs could undermine commitment to the prevention of risks.
citizens initially conducted a large part of the disaster response, such as clearing roads, giving psychosocial support to affected neighbours and repairing power lines in collaboration with power companies. As a result of these storms, an Emergent Citizen Group (ECG) was established in a village which continued to work on risk prevention, even after the event. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse this local emergent citizen group’s continuing work on the prevention of local risk and vulnerability, and particularly, their work on flood prevention. The results
indicate that authorities seldom understand the ECG’s concerns about risks.
Authorities also lack the experience and capacity to collaborate with, and support, the ECG’s risk and vulnerability reduction work. Bureaucratic barriers and declining motivation among volunteers within the ECGs could undermine commitment to the prevention of risks.
Avdelning/ar
- Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi
- Avdelningen för Riskhantering och Samhällssäkerhet
Publiceringsår
2015
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
360-387
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
Volym
33
Issue
3
Länkar
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
International Research Committee on Disasters, IRCD
Ämne
- Human Geography
- Other Engineering and Technologies
Nyckelord
- Emergent Citizen Group
- risk
- storm
- flood mitigation
- Sweden
Aktiv
Published
Projekt
- FRIVA
- Perspectives on vulnerability and need for help in the management of crises (within FRIVA II)
Forskningsgrupp
- LUCRAM (Lund University Center for Risk Analysis and Management
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0280-7270