Ian I. Mitroff and Harold A. Linstone
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195102888
- eISBN:
- 9780199854943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102888.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
Global markets, Japanese competition, the service economy, the sophisticated consumer — American business today faces challenges undreamed of just a few decades ago, and traditional approaches to ...
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Global markets, Japanese competition, the service economy, the sophisticated consumer — American business today faces challenges undreamed of just a few decades ago, and traditional approaches to corporate problems are becoming increasingly less effective. And yet MBA programs still preach — and thousands of American firms hold sacred — an antiquated system of business thinking that is wholly inadequate to the problems they face. In this book, the authors pinpoint the profound changes that must occur in the way business executives think, make decisions, and solve problems, if America is to remain competitive. They put forth a radically new approach — “new thinking” — and show executives exactly how to employ these special critical and creative tools to clear the hurdles businesses now face. Varying perspectives, multiple realities, and openness to multiple solutions are the secrets of contemporary problem-solving, and lead us to the cutting edge of innovation. In illustrating how “new thinking” differs from the usual ways in which American firms have handled problems, they analyze a wealth of examples including the decline of the American auto industry and the consequences of this country's blind exporting of technology. They also revisit and interpret some of the gravest crises corporate America has faced: the Bhopal disaster, the Tylenol scare, and the accident at Three Mile Island. This book argues that if we are to produce products and services that can compete in the information age, we must challenge the very foundations of our thinking, and learn how to approach decision-making in a truly creative way.Less
Global markets, Japanese competition, the service economy, the sophisticated consumer — American business today faces challenges undreamed of just a few decades ago, and traditional approaches to corporate problems are becoming increasingly less effective. And yet MBA programs still preach — and thousands of American firms hold sacred — an antiquated system of business thinking that is wholly inadequate to the problems they face. In this book, the authors pinpoint the profound changes that must occur in the way business executives think, make decisions, and solve problems, if America is to remain competitive. They put forth a radically new approach — “new thinking” — and show executives exactly how to employ these special critical and creative tools to clear the hurdles businesses now face. Varying perspectives, multiple realities, and openness to multiple solutions are the secrets of contemporary problem-solving, and lead us to the cutting edge of innovation. In illustrating how “new thinking” differs from the usual ways in which American firms have handled problems, they analyze a wealth of examples including the decline of the American auto industry and the consequences of this country's blind exporting of technology. They also revisit and interpret some of the gravest crises corporate America has faced: the Bhopal disaster, the Tylenol scare, and the accident at Three Mile Island. This book argues that if we are to produce products and services that can compete in the information age, we must challenge the very foundations of our thinking, and learn how to approach decision-making in a truly creative way.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above ...
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This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.Less
This chapter introduces the subject of Peruvian responses to climate change and ensuing glacier catastrophes from 1941 to the present. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, which towers above the Callejón de Huaylas valley in the Ancash Department, 25,000 people have died from glacier-related disasters (glacial lake outburst floods and avalanches). The chapter places this study within current historiography on climate history, the history of science and technology, environmental history, Peruvian history, Latin American history, disaster studies, and glacier-society relations both globally and in the Andean region. The chapter then demonstrates why glacier retreat in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range is an ideal case study for understanding long-term human adaptation to climate change, as well as analyzing how science evolves in societal context following climate change and natural disasters. Responses to climate change, which brought scientists and engineers to the Cordillera Blanca, unleashed a process called disaster economics: the use of catastrophes or disaster mitigation programs to promote and empower a range of economic development interests in both the public and private sectors. Climate change triggered historical processes and scientific developments far beyond the immediate disasters caused by melting glaciers.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
As glacier retreat threatens people worldwide, this study raises crucial concerns about the successes, failures, and issues that societies might face as they grapple with climate change and shrinking ...
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As glacier retreat threatens people worldwide, this study raises crucial concerns about the successes, failures, and issues that societies might face as they grapple with climate change and shrinking glaciers. This case of climate change adaptation and hazard mitigation in response to glacier disasters over seventy years yields several broadly applicable conclusions. Residents living close to glaciers or in glacially fed watersheds endured the highest cost of glacier retreat because they lost their lives, families, and communities. Disaster responses brought new historical actors—scientists, engineers, water developers, tourists, the nation state, and most recently, the World Bank—to a region where these groups previously had little knowledge about or control over. Each group brought its own ideas about how to define, manage, and utilize the glaciated landscape. Power dynamics among the groups influenced environmental management policies and whose vision for the Andes, its glaciers, and its water ultimately won out.Less
As glacier retreat threatens people worldwide, this study raises crucial concerns about the successes, failures, and issues that societies might face as they grapple with climate change and shrinking glaciers. This case of climate change adaptation and hazard mitigation in response to glacier disasters over seventy years yields several broadly applicable conclusions. Residents living close to glaciers or in glacially fed watersheds endured the highest cost of glacier retreat because they lost their lives, families, and communities. Disaster responses brought new historical actors—scientists, engineers, water developers, tourists, the nation state, and most recently, the World Bank—to a region where these groups previously had little knowledge about or control over. Each group brought its own ideas about how to define, manage, and utilize the glaciated landscape. Power dynamics among the groups influenced environmental management policies and whose vision for the Andes, its glaciers, and its water ultimately won out.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, ...
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On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are still suffering the effects. This is the first book to comprehensively examine the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the Chernobyl disaster. Tracing the story from an initial lack of disclosure to post-Soviet democratizing attempts to compensate sufferers, the book uses anthropological tools to take us into a world whose social realities are far more immediate and stark than those described by policymakers and scientists. It asks: What happens to politics when state officials fail to inform their fellow citizens of real threats to life? What are the moral and political consequences of remedies available in the wake of technological disasters? The book illustrates how the Chernobyl explosion and its aftermath have not only shaped the course of an independent nation but have made health a negotiated realm of entitlement. It tracks the emergence of a “biological citizenship” in which assaults on health become the coinage through which sufferers stake claims for biomedical resources, social equity, and human rights. The book provides an anthropological framework for understanding the politics of emergent democracies, the nature of citizenship claims, and everyday forms of survival as they are interwoven with the profound changes that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.Less
On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are still suffering the effects. This is the first book to comprehensively examine the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the Chernobyl disaster. Tracing the story from an initial lack of disclosure to post-Soviet democratizing attempts to compensate sufferers, the book uses anthropological tools to take us into a world whose social realities are far more immediate and stark than those described by policymakers and scientists. It asks: What happens to politics when state officials fail to inform their fellow citizens of real threats to life? What are the moral and political consequences of remedies available in the wake of technological disasters? The book illustrates how the Chernobyl explosion and its aftermath have not only shaped the course of an independent nation but have made health a negotiated realm of entitlement. It tracks the emergence of a “biological citizenship” in which assaults on health become the coinage through which sufferers stake claims for biomedical resources, social equity, and human rights. The book provides an anthropological framework for understanding the politics of emergent democracies, the nature of citizenship claims, and everyday forms of survival as they are interwoven with the profound changes that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Joe Smith
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265536
- eISBN:
- 9780191760327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265536.003.0019
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Change is feared yet it is our constant companion. Communicating about tipping points can be examined through the ways climate change is being handled by the media. Global pervasiveness, endemic ...
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Change is feared yet it is our constant companion. Communicating about tipping points can be examined through the ways climate change is being handled by the media. Global pervasiveness, endemic uncertainty, striking interdependencies, postcolonial framing, interdisciplinarity, and varying representations of time form the cultural foundations for discourse and disagreement. Coverage of disasters affects popular interpretations, and unusual weather events trigger often misleading and inaccurate associations. The media have to straddle the better scientific interpretations and predictions with popular beliefs and associations. In the struggle for accuracy the demands of immediacy and novelty clash with competing news stories and over-familiarity.Less
Change is feared yet it is our constant companion. Communicating about tipping points can be examined through the ways climate change is being handled by the media. Global pervasiveness, endemic uncertainty, striking interdependencies, postcolonial framing, interdisciplinarity, and varying representations of time form the cultural foundations for discourse and disagreement. Coverage of disasters affects popular interpretations, and unusual weather events trigger often misleading and inaccurate associations. The media have to straddle the better scientific interpretations and predictions with popular beliefs and associations. In the struggle for accuracy the demands of immediacy and novelty clash with competing news stories and over-familiarity.
Robert Audi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609574
- eISBN:
- 9780191731822
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609574.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book shows how religious commitment can be rational and describes the place of faith in the postmodern world. It portrays religious commitment as far more than accepting doctrines—it is viewed ...
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This book shows how religious commitment can be rational and describes the place of faith in the postmodern world. It portrays religious commitment as far more than accepting doctrines—it is viewed as a kind of life, not just as an embrace of tenets. Faith is conceived as a unique attitude. It is irreducible to belief, but closely connected with both belief and conduct, and intimately related to life’s moral, political, and aesthetic dimensions. Part One presents an account of rationality as a status attainable by mature religious people—even those with a strongly scientific habit of mind. Part Two describes what it means to have faith, how faith is connected with attitudes, emotions, and conduct, and how religious experience may support it. Part Three turns to religious commitment and moral obligation and to the relation between religion and politics. It shows how ethics and religion can be mutually supportive though ethics provides comprehensive standards of conduct independently of theology. It also depicts the integrated life possible for the religiously committed—a life with rewarding interactions between faith and reason, religion and science, and the aesthetic and the spiritual. The book concludes with two major accounts. One, concerning the relation between theism and evil, explains how moral wrongs and natural disasters are possible under a God conceived as having the knowledge, power, and goodness that make such evils so difficult to understand. The other account concerns the metaphysical resources of theism and the nature of persons, human and divine, and it yields a theory that can sustain a rational theistic worldview in the contemporary scientific age.Less
This book shows how religious commitment can be rational and describes the place of faith in the postmodern world. It portrays religious commitment as far more than accepting doctrines—it is viewed as a kind of life, not just as an embrace of tenets. Faith is conceived as a unique attitude. It is irreducible to belief, but closely connected with both belief and conduct, and intimately related to life’s moral, political, and aesthetic dimensions. Part One presents an account of rationality as a status attainable by mature religious people—even those with a strongly scientific habit of mind. Part Two describes what it means to have faith, how faith is connected with attitudes, emotions, and conduct, and how religious experience may support it. Part Three turns to religious commitment and moral obligation and to the relation between religion and politics. It shows how ethics and religion can be mutually supportive though ethics provides comprehensive standards of conduct independently of theology. It also depicts the integrated life possible for the religiously committed—a life with rewarding interactions between faith and reason, religion and science, and the aesthetic and the spiritual. The book concludes with two major accounts. One, concerning the relation between theism and evil, explains how moral wrongs and natural disasters are possible under a God conceived as having the knowledge, power, and goodness that make such evils so difficult to understand. The other account concerns the metaphysical resources of theism and the nature of persons, human and divine, and it yields a theory that can sustain a rational theistic worldview in the contemporary scientific age.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change ...
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Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change over time. It analyzes how people around Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range grappled with climate‐induced glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, which killed approximately 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations and demanded state programs to drain dangerous glacial lakes. Yet they rejected hazard zoning in their communities. Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But hazard mitigation, disaster responses, and climate change adaptation were never just about engineering the Andes to protect vulnerable populations. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, tourists, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier retreat differently, based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology studies, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders—and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting political and economic modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be overlooked in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.Less
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. This environmental history analysis offers a much needed but barely examined ground‐level study of human impacts and responses to climate change over time. It analyzes how people around Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range grappled with climate‐induced glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, which killed approximately 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations and demanded state programs to drain dangerous glacial lakes. Yet they rejected hazard zoning in their communities. Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But hazard mitigation, disaster responses, and climate change adaptation were never just about engineering the Andes to protect vulnerable populations. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, tourists, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier retreat differently, based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology studies, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders—and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting political and economic modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be overlooked in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
This chapter analyzes two organizational disasters that led to the loss of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia in 1986 and 2003. These decision and information failures highlight interactions ...
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This chapter analyzes two organizational disasters that led to the loss of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia in 1986 and 2003. These decision and information failures highlight interactions between meaning, knowing, and acting that can impede learning in any organization. Thus, sensemaking driven by beliefs and past actions can be a way of seeing as well as a way of not seeing problems and risks. Knowledge creation can be compromised when vital knowledge is not transferred, and when knowledge use is controlled by organizational agendas. Repeated patterns of decision making can entrench rules, induce overconfidence, and lower vigilance.Less
This chapter analyzes two organizational disasters that led to the loss of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia in 1986 and 2003. These decision and information failures highlight interactions between meaning, knowing, and acting that can impede learning in any organization. Thus, sensemaking driven by beliefs and past actions can be a way of seeing as well as a way of not seeing problems and risks. Knowledge creation can be compromised when vital knowledge is not transferred, and when knowledge use is controlled by organizational agendas. Repeated patterns of decision making can entrench rules, induce overconfidence, and lower vigilance.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash ...
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This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash capital city of Huaraz in the Callejón de Huaylas. In the aftermath, Peruvians scrambled not only to survive and rebuild but also to determine the cause of the flood. While hazard mitigation began right after the catastrophe, it progressed haphazardly during the 1940s. Just as the 1941 flood made urban residents in Huaraz intimately aware of the previously unrecognized melting glaciers over their city, the glacial lake disaster made Peruvians in Lima and elsewhere significantly more aware of the Andean mountains—both their peril and their possibilities. Local urban and rural residents, engineers, scientists, and government officials who began studying glacial lake hazards after 1941 all brought their own perspectives about glaciers, construing them simultaneously as hazards and resources.Less
This chapter analyzes the onset of Cordillera Blanca glacier disasters in 1941 through an examination of a glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people and destroyed one-third of the Ancash capital city of Huaraz in the Callejón de Huaylas. In the aftermath, Peruvians scrambled not only to survive and rebuild but also to determine the cause of the flood. While hazard mitigation began right after the catastrophe, it progressed haphazardly during the 1940s. Just as the 1941 flood made urban residents in Huaraz intimately aware of the previously unrecognized melting glaciers over their city, the glacial lake disaster made Peruvians in Lima and elsewhere significantly more aware of the Andean mountains—both their peril and their possibilities. Local urban and rural residents, engineers, scientists, and government officials who began studying glacial lake hazards after 1941 all brought their own perspectives about glaciers, construing them simultaneously as hazards and resources.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter examines disaster responses and environmental perceptions of climate change and glacier retreat through an analysis of the 1941 Huaraz and 1945 Chavín de Huantar glacial lake outburst ...
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This chapter examines disaster responses and environmental perceptions of climate change and glacier retreat through an analysis of the 1941 Huaraz and 1945 Chavín de Huantar glacial lake outburst floods, which killed 5,000 and 500 people, respectively. For the people most affected, the urban Huaraz population, the disaster not only leveled physical structures but also toppled symbols of social standing, wealth, status, and even the culturally constructed racial categories that supposedly distinguished Indians, mestizos, and creoles (whites). Essentially, the floods erased supposed boundaries between highland and lowland, countryside and city, and nature and civilization. Conceptualizing Cordillera Blanca glacial lake disasters as the combination of societal and environmental forces illuminates the culture of climate change and reveals why residents later rejected hazard zoning. It also explains why Huaraz urban inhabitants turned to state science and technology to protect them from glacier retreat.Less
This chapter examines disaster responses and environmental perceptions of climate change and glacier retreat through an analysis of the 1941 Huaraz and 1945 Chavín de Huantar glacial lake outburst floods, which killed 5,000 and 500 people, respectively. For the people most affected, the urban Huaraz population, the disaster not only leveled physical structures but also toppled symbols of social standing, wealth, status, and even the culturally constructed racial categories that supposedly distinguished Indians, mestizos, and creoles (whites). Essentially, the floods erased supposed boundaries between highland and lowland, countryside and city, and nature and civilization. Conceptualizing Cordillera Blanca glacial lake disasters as the combination of societal and environmental forces illuminates the culture of climate change and reveals why residents later rejected hazard zoning. It also explains why Huaraz urban inhabitants turned to state science and technology to protect them from glacier retreat.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
The Control Commission of Cordillera Blanca Lakes, which was established in 1951 to prevent glacial lake outburst floods caused by climate change and glacier retreat in the Andes, had far-reaching ...
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The Control Commission of Cordillera Blanca Lakes, which was established in 1951 to prevent glacial lake outburst floods caused by climate change and glacier retreat in the Andes, had far-reaching effects on the economic development of Ancash and the Callejón de Huaylas. Engineers who examined glacial lakes brought development interests that had long inspired Peruvian policymakers and developers. They hoped to exploit Andean natural resources to promote national economic development and modernization. Glacial lake flood prevention programs provided a springboard for the expansion of hydroelectricity, road building, tourism, and wage labor. This process whereby disaster spurred economic development is referred to as "disaster economics," which the Lakes Commission carried out after 1951. Economic development directly and indirectly followed the science, technology, engineering, and policies implemented after catastrophes to prevent additional disasters, thereby revealing the social construction of science and engineering.Less
The Control Commission of Cordillera Blanca Lakes, which was established in 1951 to prevent glacial lake outburst floods caused by climate change and glacier retreat in the Andes, had far-reaching effects on the economic development of Ancash and the Callejón de Huaylas. Engineers who examined glacial lakes brought development interests that had long inspired Peruvian policymakers and developers. They hoped to exploit Andean natural resources to promote national economic development and modernization. Glacial lake flood prevention programs provided a springboard for the expansion of hydroelectricity, road building, tourism, and wage labor. This process whereby disaster spurred economic development is referred to as "disaster economics," which the Lakes Commission carried out after 1951. Economic development directly and indirectly followed the science, technology, engineering, and policies implemented after catastrophes to prevent additional disasters, thereby revealing the social construction of science and engineering.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Two glacier avalanches from Mount Huascarán killed 4,000 people and destroyed the town of Ranrahirca and killed 15,000 people and devastated the city of Yungay in 1970, making it the most deadly ...
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Two glacier avalanches from Mount Huascarán killed 4,000 people and destroyed the town of Ranrahirca and killed 15,000 people and devastated the city of Yungay in 1970, making it the most deadly glacier disaster in world history. Because these avalanches were unpredictable and uncontrollable, the Peruvian government tried more forcefully than it had during previous decades to implement hazard zoning to reduce disaster vulnerability in the Callejón de Huaylas. Local residents with different risk perceptions, however, successfully resisted zoning plans. In the process, glacier and glacial lake science became contested knowledge that various social groups sought to control. Ironically, locals opposed zoning to limit state intervention in their communities. But by inhabiting hazard zones they ultimately became even more dependent on state programs to monitor Cordillera Blanca glaciers and drain glacial lakes. As glacier experts tried to protect populations, they mediated between the centralized state and various local populations.Less
Two glacier avalanches from Mount Huascarán killed 4,000 people and destroyed the town of Ranrahirca and killed 15,000 people and devastated the city of Yungay in 1970, making it the most deadly glacier disaster in world history. Because these avalanches were unpredictable and uncontrollable, the Peruvian government tried more forcefully than it had during previous decades to implement hazard zoning to reduce disaster vulnerability in the Callejón de Huaylas. Local residents with different risk perceptions, however, successfully resisted zoning plans. In the process, glacier and glacial lake science became contested knowledge that various social groups sought to control. Ironically, locals opposed zoning to limit state intervention in their communities. But by inhabiting hazard zones they ultimately became even more dependent on state programs to monitor Cordillera Blanca glaciers and drain glacial lakes. As glacier experts tried to protect populations, they mediated between the centralized state and various local populations.
Mark Carey
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195396065
- eISBN:
- 9780199775682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195396065.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Neoliberal reforms during the 1990s transformed natural resource access and environmental management worldwide. In Peru, hydroelectricity privatization allowed Duke Energy to consolidate control over ...
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Neoliberal reforms during the 1990s transformed natural resource access and environmental management worldwide. In Peru, hydroelectricity privatization allowed Duke Energy to consolidate control over the Cañón del Pato facility on the Santa River, which is fed largely by Cordillera Blanca glacier runoff. Once Duke Energy Egenor began management in 1997, the state's hydroelectric company, Electroperú, ended its glacier monitoring and glacial lake engineering programs. This was the first break in continuous glacier disaster prevention programs since 1951. Neoliberal privatization thus heightened climate change vulnerability while simultaneously making Duke Energy a major but highly contested stakeholder in the Santa River waterscape that extended up to Cordillera Blanca glaciers. Meanwhile, threats from glacier retreat and the 1997 El Niño event continued. In 2003, fears of another glacial lake outburst flood at Lake Palcacocha above Huaraz spurred government programs to manage glacier hazards and bolstered popular protests against Duke Energy.Less
Neoliberal reforms during the 1990s transformed natural resource access and environmental management worldwide. In Peru, hydroelectricity privatization allowed Duke Energy to consolidate control over the Cañón del Pato facility on the Santa River, which is fed largely by Cordillera Blanca glacier runoff. Once Duke Energy Egenor began management in 1997, the state's hydroelectric company, Electroperú, ended its glacier monitoring and glacial lake engineering programs. This was the first break in continuous glacier disaster prevention programs since 1951. Neoliberal privatization thus heightened climate change vulnerability while simultaneously making Duke Energy a major but highly contested stakeholder in the Santa River waterscape that extended up to Cordillera Blanca glaciers. Meanwhile, threats from glacier retreat and the 1997 El Niño event continued. In 2003, fears of another glacial lake outburst flood at Lake Palcacocha above Huaraz spurred government programs to manage glacier hazards and bolstered popular protests against Duke Energy.
Harvey Molotch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163581
- eISBN:
- 9781400852338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163581.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the ...
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The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.Less
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.
Michael Ward
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313871
- eISBN:
- 9780199871964
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313871.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
For the Augustans, Saturn was god of the Golden Age, and in that form he appears in certain of Lewis's early works. Soon, however, Lewis adopted the later Infortuna Major version of Saturn, treating ...
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For the Augustans, Saturn was god of the Golden Age, and in that form he appears in certain of Lewis's early works. Soon, however, Lewis adopted the later Infortuna Major version of Saturn, treating him in scholarship (where he is particularly associated with Donne), poetry, and That Hideous Strength. This grim and sour Saturn, also known as Father Time, provides the donegality of The Last Battle, a story of sorrow, disaster, treachery, coldness, ugliness, and death. But Lewis's cosmos turns out not to be Saturnocentric. For those who become patient of Saturnine constellation, who endure the cry of dereliction and become true contemplatives, there was a road to tread ‘beyond the tower of Kronos’.Less
For the Augustans, Saturn was god of the Golden Age, and in that form he appears in certain of Lewis's early works. Soon, however, Lewis adopted the later Infortuna Major version of Saturn, treating him in scholarship (where he is particularly associated with Donne), poetry, and That Hideous Strength. This grim and sour Saturn, also known as Father Time, provides the donegality of The Last Battle, a story of sorrow, disaster, treachery, coldness, ugliness, and death. But Lewis's cosmos turns out not to be Saturnocentric. For those who become patient of Saturnine constellation, who endure the cry of dereliction and become true contemplatives, there was a road to tread ‘beyond the tower of Kronos’.
Paul Borgman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331608
- eISBN:
- 9780199868001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331608.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The ark makes a significant appearance in five major sequences within the broader David story. Taken together, these five sequences involving the ark indicate the centrality of communal concerns in ...
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The ark makes a significant appearance in five major sequences within the broader David story. Taken together, these five sequences involving the ark indicate the centrality of communal concerns in David's story, and the role of leaders in the presence or absence of communal well‐being. The two ark appearances involving David, in the context of the ark pattern, bring David's qualifications as Israel's greatest king into increasingly sharp focus. The first of five ark instances (Israel At Its Worst; Ineffectual Ark, Judges 19:1‐21:25) serves as a frame; a woman‐in‐trouble is featured. The second instance (Communal Disaster, Lost Ark, I, 4:1‐7:2), repeats the woman‐in‐trouble motif. The third instance (Communal Glory: The Ark Returns to the Heart of Israel, II, 6:1‐23) again evidences the woman motif, this time the woman‐making‐trouble. The fourth instance (Communal Disaster, Ark Stays, David Goes II, 15:7‐16:14) reveals women‐in‐trouble, while the fifth and final instance, a frame (Israel At Its Best; Ark As Centerpiece, 1 Kings 7:51‐8:1) demonstrates the ark at its best, with no women singled out.Less
The ark makes a significant appearance in five major sequences within the broader David story. Taken together, these five sequences involving the ark indicate the centrality of communal concerns in David's story, and the role of leaders in the presence or absence of communal well‐being. The two ark appearances involving David, in the context of the ark pattern, bring David's qualifications as Israel's greatest king into increasingly sharp focus. The first of five ark instances (Israel At Its Worst; Ineffectual Ark, Judges 19:1‐21:25) serves as a frame; a woman‐in‐trouble is featured. The second instance (Communal Disaster, Lost Ark, I, 4:1‐7:2), repeats the woman‐in‐trouble motif. The third instance (Communal Glory: The Ark Returns to the Heart of Israel, II, 6:1‐23) again evidences the woman motif, this time the woman‐making‐trouble. The fourth instance (Communal Disaster, Ark Stays, David Goes II, 15:7‐16:14) reveals women‐in‐trouble, while the fifth and final instance, a frame (Israel At Its Best; Ark As Centerpiece, 1 Kings 7:51‐8:1) demonstrates the ark at its best, with no women singled out.
Jerry Skees, Panos Varangis, Donald Larson, and Paul Siegel
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199276837
- eISBN:
- 9780191601620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276838.003.0019
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter examines private and public mechanisms for managing natural disasters. It focuses on weather-related risks that impact rural incomes. It argues that the basic information and analysis ...
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This chapter examines private and public mechanisms for managing natural disasters. It focuses on weather-related risks that impact rural incomes. It argues that the basic information and analysis needed to design and value index insurance can also be used to develop a spatial mapping of weather-related risks. It discusses ways of structuring disaster assistance so that it facilitates other forms of risk management, and presents a solution that involves segmenting and layering the natural disaster risk.Less
This chapter examines private and public mechanisms for managing natural disasters. It focuses on weather-related risks that impact rural incomes. It argues that the basic information and analysis needed to design and value index insurance can also be used to develop a spatial mapping of weather-related risks. It discusses ways of structuring disaster assistance so that it facilitates other forms of risk management, and presents a solution that involves segmenting and layering the natural disaster risk.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over ...
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This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over unpredictable and largely unassessed circumstances of risk. More specifically, it investigates the relationship between individual suffering caused by the Chernobyl accident and the technical measures and scales of expertise used to assess radiation-related biological injury in Ukraine. To this end, the chapter considers the work of international scientific networks in patterning initial Soviet remediation strategies and public health responses. It highlights key aspects of the initial Soviet management of the Chernobyl disaster and shows how ambiguities related to the interpretation of radiation-related physical damage subjected post-Chernobyl state interventions and medical surveillance to a variety of competing scientific and political interests. It also considers the so-called Safe Living Concept regarding radiation dose exposure and Soviet-American bioscientific collaboration report on radioactive fallout.Less
This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over unpredictable and largely unassessed circumstances of risk. More specifically, it investigates the relationship between individual suffering caused by the Chernobyl accident and the technical measures and scales of expertise used to assess radiation-related biological injury in Ukraine. To this end, the chapter considers the work of international scientific networks in patterning initial Soviet remediation strategies and public health responses. It highlights key aspects of the initial Soviet management of the Chernobyl disaster and shows how ambiguities related to the interpretation of radiation-related physical damage subjected post-Chernobyl state interventions and medical surveillance to a variety of competing scientific and political interests. It also considers the so-called Safe Living Concept regarding radiation dose exposure and Soviet-American bioscientific collaboration report on radioactive fallout.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside ...
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This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.Less
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification ...
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This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification of the ill effects of the Chernobyl disaster and the social process of distribution of disability entitlements. Drawing on the experiences of three sufferers, the chapter considers the kind of experiences and social initiatives that have emerged between state medical classification and the redistribution of social welfare goods. It also explores the importance that Soviet administrators placed on the environment as a political tool to “normalize” catastrophe, and how that normalized environment influenced life stories and medical case histories. Finally, it discusses the ways that law, medicine, and corruption intersected with respect to the processing of disability claims.Less
This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification of the ill effects of the Chernobyl disaster and the social process of distribution of disability entitlements. Drawing on the experiences of three sufferers, the chapter considers the kind of experiences and social initiatives that have emerged between state medical classification and the redistribution of social welfare goods. It also explores the importance that Soviet administrators placed on the environment as a political tool to “normalize” catastrophe, and how that normalized environment influenced life stories and medical case histories. Finally, it discusses the ways that law, medicine, and corruption intersected with respect to the processing of disability claims.
