Dear Kalliopi

Certainly the concept of risk and damage sound very good talking about adverse events.

In theory, if you can identify the cause or the generator of poverty, the damages of poverty, you may be able to determine who is exposed, as it is exposed, the consequences.

If there was a lamp that radiates poverty then it would be easy.

Personality, governments, fortune ... looks like a mountain to climb with great difficulty by a method based on analysis and identification of the causes and the subsequent determination of the effects.

So the terms are surely usable with great effect for the purposes of communication, even if there is a risk (heh, heh) that they become content label of empty boxes.

The speech would be the same with respect to the risk of becoming rich.

Sustainable Livelihood Framework of DFID, UK links the assets of the poor (financial, social, human,  physical, and natural) with disasters ( in terms of stress, and shocks) on the one side, and the policies/regulations on the other side. The permutations and combinations available for the poor to work out their  livelihood strategies in the face of Climate change adaptation, and Disaster Risk Reduction are nicely brought out by DFID.  Pl see for more details in the URL. ( http://www.sida.se/contentassets/bd474c210163447c9a7963d77c64148a/the-sustainable-livelihood-approach-to-poverty-reduction_2656.pdf)

You can also see "The Sustainable Livelihood Approach to Poverty Reduction:

An Introduction" By Lasse Krantz,February 2001

I also suggest that you see the Disaster Risk Reduction Framework advocated by Bogardi, Birkmann and Cardona, famously known as BBC Framework for measuring vulnerability. Pl see URL below: . (https://www.ehs.unu.edu/file/get/3944)

   just to quote from the first paragraph in the above URL:

     'While some approaches view vulnerability primarily with regard to the degree of

experienced loss of life (mortality) (e.g  Disaster Risk Index), the BBC conceptual

framework addresses various vulnerabilitiesin the social, economic and environmental sphere. These three spheres have been defined as

the three main pillars of sustainable development .

That means the BBC-framework also accounts for example for environmental vulnerability, which is often difficult to assess. The BBC framework stresses the fact that vulnerability analysis goes beyond the estimation of the deficiencies and the assessment of disaster impacts in the past. It underlines the necessity

to view vulnerability within a process (dynamic), which

means focusing simultaneously on vulnerabilities,coping capacities, and potential

intervention tools to reduce vulnerabilities(feedback loop system). In contrast to some other approaches which define vulnerability separate from coping capacity and exposure,"

I have been linking the Sustainable Livelihood model with BBC Framework for understanding the linkages!1 I am sure you will like the papers.

Dear Giorgio,

Thank you very much for the answer. However, my intention is not to address the causes of poverty through vulnerability but rather to investigate resilience options (human, social, institutional) combating susceptibility to poverty (i.e. poverty reduction through resilience and repercussions and not poverty interpretation). It is this kind of studies that I am searching for. And it is not only poverty that is at stake, it could be energy poverty, bankruptcy, eviction, homelessness, malnutrition to refer to some of the adversities encountered in the countries of economic crisis in Europe. Taken for granted that resilience has an ameliorating impact on vulnerability and exposure vulnerability analysis (who is vulnerable for each loss case and which factors are determinant) may contribute to the determination of potential resilience options.

I agree. They are all related to the Sustainable Livelihood questions facing the poor community, which are also exacerbated by the looming climate change possibilities. So the coping mechanism for the community ( which is essentially  a sum of of Resistance and Resilience) comes from the the human, social, natural, physical and other assets ( may not include financial if the poverty is Income Poverty). Here is where I liked the DFID, UK model of Sustainable Development Framework integrated with Birkmann/Bogardi and Cardona (BBC) Disaster Reduction Framework .

Dear Prof Jayaraman,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I am indeed knowledgeable of the two approaches you propose and I have two comments respectively:

- The BBC model refers to the Climate Change case. It does not refer to risks emanating from socio-economic, political or socio-technological processes.

- The Sustainable Livelihood approach utilizes vulnerability as a generic term covering a wide and non-specified range of adversities. Consequently, the suggested by the approach resilience is considered as a property targeting whatever abrupt change or hazardous condition. This consideration however, is based on the hypothesis that building and employing resilience to combat one specific adversity does not affect vulnerability and resilience to other adversities currently or in the future. To my view this a disputable statement because resilience is based not only on infinite but also on finite resources unequally distributed in time and space. To my view this the reason of the limited application and questionable results of the approach. Could you please send me a report or study referring to the successful application of the approach?.

Thank you Mr. Jayaraman for info resources. By the way - there is also problem with translations of some terms 

Thanks Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki. Well, I need to carefully go through your reasoning vis-a-vis the approaches practiced. It is interesting to note your observation about the adverse effect the resilience effort for a particular adversity will have on vulnerability and resilience of other adversities.  I will see whether any Report is available for sharing. Most of our activities are related to natural resources and environment management elated and associated disasters, which have repercussions on the socio-economic fabric of the poor. 

Pl correct the last sentence as "Most of our activities are related to natural resources and environment management and associated disasters, which have repercussions on the socio-economic fabric of the poor". Sorry for the typos.

Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki,

Even as I have started appreciating your research work of looking at the socio-economic risk aspects from the typical disaster risk reduction/management angle, I thought one of the papers from my collection (a bit old though - it is of 2001 vintage) could be some indirect use. May be, you would have seen this as well. Kindly see the URL below:

Vulnerability: A View From Different Disciplines byJeffrey Alwang, Paul B. Siegel and Steen L. Jørgensen, June 2001

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOCIALPROTECTION/Resources/SP-Discussion-papers/Social-Risk-Management-DP/0115.pdf

In the meanwhile, I will continue to look for more recent papers. 

Thank you

Dear prof Jayaraman,

Indeed the paper you sent me is very relevant especially as regards vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity. It is interesting to note however, that the notion of resilience was still immature then (if compared to the views of today recognizing resilience as a more dynamic attribute co-existing with vulnerability and not as the antonymous of vulnerability). In this sense the managerial aspect of resilience as a constant factor to combat vulnerability is lacking from the paper. Hence, the paper is focusing solely on vulnerability and does not offer any deliberation on the potential for socio-economic risk management with the help of resilience or even the limits of such a possibility. An empirical study of a socio-economic risk management cycle would be very informative in this sense.

Dear Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki,

Yes, you are correct as this paper is more than a decade old, and the concept of Resilience was probably was still evolving. I am happy you mentioned about it forcefully. Here, .I also want you to see another paper of that period which was highly appreciated for the conceptual understanding it brought about vulnerability. and risk. Again, not so much on resilience.

I am referring to the paper on "The Need for Rethinking the Concepts of Vulnerability and Risk from a Holistic Perspective: A Necessary Review and Criticism for Effective Risk Management" by Omar D Cardona ( See URL: http://www.la-red.org/public/articulos/2003/nrcvrfhp/nrcvrfhp_ago-04-2003.pdf) which appeared in 2003.

This paper in a Section on  Critique of the different approaches brings out the fact that "The conceptual frameworks used to understand and interpret risk and the terminologies associated with these, have not only varied over time, but also differ according to the disciplinary perspective considered". I am sure, you would have seen this paper. If not, I am sure you will have more to say about it!!

I am still on the lookout for the latest on the topic.

Regards

Dear Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki,

I came across the recent paper (2013) which talks about a framework that links DRM with CCA . Even as I have started going through it, I am marking a copy to you.

" Framing vulnerability, risk and societal responses: the MOVE framework" by

J. Birkmann, O. D. Cardona, M. L. Carreno, A. H. Barbat, M. Pelling, S. Schneiderbauer, S. Kienberger, M. Keiler, D. Alexander, P. Zeil, T. Welle, from Nat Hazards (2013) 67:193–211 (DOI 10.1007/s11069-013-0558-5)

http://barbat.rmee.upc.edu/papers/%5B74%5D%20Birkmann,%20Cardona,%20Carre%C3%B1o,%20Barbat%20et%20al,%202013.pdf

Dear Prof Jayaraman,

Your ideas and contributions are very constructive. The paper by Cardona is very interesting as it elevates (and criticizes) the fact that those days (i.e. before 2003) vulnerability was considered as a synonymous to poverty, a condition standing alone independently from what ever hazard or risk (i.e. the prospect of a disaster or a future loss).  My suggestion is that poverty (not only poverty but also other social adversities as well) may be a future negative potentiality and hence risk (and not vulnerability). My suggestion is also that this adverse potentiality depends on certain vulnerability conditions and resilience capabilities (human, social, institutional). It is this type of studies Iam searching for. A study about the risk of povery and not about poverty as synonymous to vulnerability.

Hoping that we will keep on discussing on the matter.

Thank you, Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki.

Well, while on the topic of poverty, you may like to see my paper "Poverty Mapping and Monitoring using Information Technology: Learning and Perspectives From India" which I have uploaded in my ResearchGate page.

Also, you may like to see" Strategies for rural poverty alleviation in India: A perspective based on remote sensing and GIS-based nationwide wasteland mapping

SK Srivastava, CBS Dutt, R Nagaraja, S Bandyopadhayay, HCM Rani, ...

Current Science 87 (7), 954-959" . It is also uploaded in the ResearchGate page of mine.

Just stumbled on the following paper. Even as I am trying to get access to this paper, I thought it could of interest to you.

"Reconnecting with poverty: new challenges of disaster management" by

Maximiliano E. Korstanje

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in The Built Environment , vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 165-177, 2011

DOI: 10.1108/17595901111149150

I was more attractedby the Summary given there.

" Purpose – It is clear that poverty can be a key factor to take into consideration at time of potentiating or mitigating the unexpected aftermaths of disasters. In some extent, the degree of vulnerability created by poverty leads scholars to preclude material conditions of life plays a pivotal role in disaster rebuilt. Nonetheless, the present paper aims to explore precisely the connection between the false conceptualization of poverty as pathways towards the conditions of disasters with the disaster in such. Design/methodology/approach – This thesis is that the poverty is a humanitarian disaster often intellectualized as cause of disaster in order for real liable actors not assume their faults. The conceptual contributions of this paper pave the pathways for the advent of a new debate in disaster and recovery issues. Findings – This paper questions the classical idea that poverty plays a positive role in the process of recovery after a disaster paving the pathways for the triggering of a hot debate in disaster management. Originality/value – The originality of this work refers to the needs of reconsidering how late-modernity replicates the conditions for what the disaster has been feasible. Not only this accommodates all our previous belief in how dealing with victims and survivors but explores the cynicism between suffering and mass consumption."

Hope I will get to read the full paper.

Regards

-

Dr V Jayaraman

It seems really challenging. Unfortunately I have not immediate access to this paper.

There is a lot of work which considers disaster risk in the context of poverty, which gives you some rationality to talk about the concepts.  Most of the work produced by the UN on disasters looks at the inter-relation between poverty and disaster.  If you google "Poverty and Disaster" you will come up with a huge amount of content.  Specifically, try searching for Bangladesh, China, and Hurricane Katrina as keywords.....there is a LOT out there.

Dear Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki.

One more paper I came across recently is   "Redefining Poverty as Risk and

Vulnerability: shifting strategies of liberal economic governance" by JACQUELINE BEST which appeared in Third World Quarterly, Vol. 34, No.1, 2013, pp 109–129.

I am attaching a copy for your reference.

Dear Dr Kalliopi Sapountzaki.

Recently I came across this article. You may like to see.

" Reconnecting with poverty:new challenges of disaster management"

by Maximiliano E. Korstanje

Department of Economics, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

https://www.academia.edu/6317705/Reconnecting_with_poverty_new_challenges_of_disaster_management

disaster risks relate often closely to socio-economic status and risks arising from it. One important aspects e.g. is to be able to recover from disaster and here socio-economic status can be rather crucial.