From Google Scholar+ [to 24 May 2014]
Selected content from beyond the journals and sources covered above, aggregated from a range of Google Scholar monitoring algorithms and other monitoring strategies.
Information and communication technologies for disaster risk management in the Caribbean
Robert Crane Williams, Atiba Phillips
United Nations – ECLAS ISSN 1727-9917
February 2014
Abstract
This paper examines the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for disaster risk management (DRM) with a specific focus on the Caribbean. The study included the review of literature and case studies, as well the administration of a survey instrument that collected the feedback of 13 regional national DRM agencies.
Analysis of the survey suggests that while subregional disaster management agencies have fairly good access to technology infrastructure and enjoy an information sharing culture, challenges exist with regard to the information governance frameworks as well as the capacity and availability of human capital with regard to ICT. The study findings indicate that the regional DRM sector would do well to:
:: Deepen connections with policy makers and other communities of practice
:: Modernize ICT Infrastructure for DRM
:: Consider a subregional e-strategy for DRM
:: Improve ICT governance
:: Urgently develop programmes of ICT human capacity development.
BMC Research Notes
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcresnotes/content
Research Article
The psychological impact of a dual-disaster caused by earthquakes and radioactive contamination in Ichinoseki after the great East Japan earthquake
Tomihisa Niitsu, Kota Takaoka, Saho Uemura, Akiko Kono, Akihiko Saito, Norito Kawakami, Michiko Nakazato and Eiji Shimizu
Published: 20 May 2014
doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-307
Abstract
Background
The psychological impact of dual-disasters (earthquakes and a nuclear accident), on affected
communities is unknown. This study investigated the impact of a dual-disaster (earthquakes
and radioactive contamination) on the prevalence of psychological distress in a landlocked
city within the Tohoku area, Japan.
Methods
A cross-sectional mail-in survey with a random sample of inhabitants from Ichinoseki city
was conducted eleven months after the disasters, and data from 902 respondents were
analyzed by logistic regression models, with multiple imputation methodology. The K6 was
used to determine psychological distress.
Results
The estimated prevalence of psychological distress was 48.0 percent. House damage due to
earthquakes and anxiety about radioactive contamination were significantly associated with
psychological distress (p < 0.05), while an interactive effect between house damage and
anxiety about radioactive contamination was not significant. Being female, middle-to-low
educational status and unemployed were additional risk factors for psychological distress.
Conclusions
This dual-disaster was associated with a moderate prevalence of psychological distress in the
area. The impact of the earthquake and radioactive contamination appeared additive.
Social Science & Medicine
Available online 14 May 2014
Disaster Medicine: Genealogy of a Concept
Cécile Stephanie Stehrenberger, Svenja Goltermann
Highlights
:: Humanitarian and disaster medicine developed along entangled but different paths.
:: Disaster medicine emerged and was developed in the context of industrialization and the Cold War.
:: Some of humanitarian medicine’s present issues date back to early 20th Century disaster medicine.
:: Throughout its history, the political character of disaster medicine has been both affirmed and denied.
:: Disaster medicine was heavily contested as “war medicine”.
Abstract
This paper evaluates disaster medicine from a historical perspective that facilitates the understanding of its present. Today, disaster medicine and humanitarian medicine are inextricably linked and the terms are sometimes used synonymously. An in-depth analysis of an extensive body of concrete empirical cases from various sources (i.e. archival records) reveals, however, that they have not always been the same. A genealogical, history-of-knowledge approach demonstrates that the concept of disaster medicine emerged in the early 20th century in Switzerland in the context of industrialization. Even though it gained important impetus during the First World War, the concept was informed by the experiences of forensic physicians in technological disasters such as mining explosions. The Cold War constituted the historical constellation in which disaster medicine was developed in West Germany during the 1960s and 1970s in a way that was paradigmatic for other Western European countries. At the same time, it was contested there in an unusual, historically unique way. Although focusing on a Western European context, this paper explores how medical interventions in disasters were international events and how the practice of disaster medicine was developed and “trained” through being applied in the Global South. It demonstrates the historicity of disaster medicine’s political character and of the controversies generated by its involvement in civil and military operations. Throughout the 20th century, the political nature and military involvement of disaster medicine resulted in a number of ethical and practical issues, which are similar to the challenges facing humanitarian medicine today. The exploration of disaster medicine’s past can therefore open up critical interventions in humanitarian medicine’s present.
Disaster Prevention and Management
Vol. 23 Iss: 3, pp.214 – 221
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0965-3562&volume=23&issue=3
Rights and obligations in international humanitarian assistance
George Kent, (Department of Political Science, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, USA)
DOI: 10.1108/DPM-07-2013-0122
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for understanding the rights and obligations of different parties in relation to international humanitarian assistance.
Design/methodology/approach – Past discourse on rights and obligations of the parties in various types of humanitarian emergencies is critically reviewed. Various moral and legal principles are used to assess that discourse.
Findings – Many governments emphasize their right to provide international humanitarian assistance, but appear reluctant to acknowledge any obligation to provide such assistance. Claims regarding the right to provide assistance under some conditions should be accompanied by acknowledgment of obligations to provide assistance under some conditions.
Originality/value – This analysis encourages national governments and international agencies to go beyond asserting their rights to assist to also recognize obligations to assist under some conditions
Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU)
Volume 25, Number 2, May 2014
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_health_care_for_the_poor_and_underserved/toc/hpu.25.2.html
Cervical Cancer and HPV: Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors among Women Living in Guatemala
Amy Petrocy, Mira L. Katz
Abstract:
This study was conducted to explore knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening, human papillomavirus (HPV), and acceptance of the HPV vaccine. A purposive sample of 40 women was interviewed during August 2012. Fisher’s exact test was used to evaluate differences among rural and urban women, and open-ended questions were coded independently by two individuals (Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.816). Among the 22 rural and 18 urban women, there was limited knowledge about cervical cancer, screening, HPV, and the HPV vaccine. Cervical cancer was described in language related to gender, science, severity, or associated with having children, a uterus, or menstruation. All rural and most urban participants were interested in the HPV vaccine for themselves and their daughters. Limited awareness and knowledge about cervical cancer and HPV was common among Guatemalan women, highlighting the need for additional information prior to developing cancer prevention educational materials and programs.
Human Rights Quarterly
Volume 36, Number 2, May 2014
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/toc/hrq.36.2.html
Book Review: Reshaping the Idea of Humanitarian Intervention: Norms, Causal Stories, and the Use of Force
Courtney Hillebrecht
Excerpt
With an ongoing human tragedy unfolding in Syria and the international community unable and unwilling to respond, Carrie Booth Walling’s All Necessary Measures reminds us that in international politics, power is “no longer simply about whose military can win but also about whose story can win.” That is, the narratives that shape our understanding of the causes and possible solutions of mass violence inherently shape our willingness to act. In this carefully researched and well-reasoned book, Walling argues that scholars and practitioners must take norms seriously, even in the arena of power politics.
All Necessary Measures considers how the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) began to entertain questions about human rights and then, how principled arguments for human rights led to humanitarian intervention. It contrasts examples of successful humanitarian intervention with those instances of mass atrocity in which the UNSC either refused or failed to act. By comparing these cases, the author convincingly demonstrates that principled ideas and arguments intersect with and change states’ interests. It also makes a secondary but no less important argument about the intersection of norms, arguing that human rights exist alongside other norms, particularly state sovereignty, and that these norms are constantly co-evolving. All Necessary Measures ultimately points to an emerging synthesis of sovereignty and human rights.
The book adds to the expansive literature on humanitarian intervention by showing that in order to understand when and why states engage in humanitarian intervention, we need to pay particular attention to the narratives states are telling about the use of force and how these narratives and the principled arguments that undergird them can alter states’ material interests. Much of the literature on humanitarian intervention focuses on the legitimacy of the idea of humanitarian intervention and the domestic and international hurdles in overcoming collective action problems related to intervention. Many, if not most, of these analyses regard states’ material interests as fixed. Walling reminds us that these interests are not fixed and are instead at least partially socially constructed.
All Necessary Measures puts forth a theory of causal stories. This theory emphasizes the discourse of human rights and humanitarianism used at the UNSC and suggests that the types of stories member states tell influences the decision to authorize force. Through content analysis of UNSC texts, the author identifies three types of causal stories. The first, the intentional causal story, characterizes conflicts as one-sided and premeditated, describing human rights abuses as “systematic, targeted, deliberate.” In intentional causal stories, there is a clear victim and a clear perpetrator, thus resulting in an impulse to punish the perpetrators and protect the victims. The main principles at play are justice and international law.
The second type of causal story, the inadvertent causal story, paints conflict as being two-sided. Civilian casualties are to be expected, but this type of story depicts these casualties as unintended and indiscriminate. Walling calls this a narrative of moral equivalency, meaning that there are multiple parties involved and the conflict often earns the label of civil war or ethnic conflict. The main principles at play are neutrality, sovereign equality, and domestic noninterference, while the main outcomes are framed in terms of providing assistance and protection or conducting observations.
Finally, the third type of causal story is the complex causal story, in which a combination of macro-level factors results in a complicated and tragic scenario that is, almost by definition, unsolvable. The main principles in these narratives are state sovereignty, stability, and the status quo, and the resulting policy outcomes involve reporting, documentation, condemnations, and appeals, but no other action.
This tripartite scale provides a unique lens through which to look at how UNSC members promote humanitarian intervention and understand the narratives they rely on to justify their action or inaction. Perhaps the two most compelling components of these narratives are the degree to which there is a clear perpetrator and the degree to which humanitarian intervention can actually solve the crisis at hand. The two are, not surprisingly, related. That is, in situations that are described as complex, with large, structural contributing factors, there is no one to clearly blame and the prognosis for humanitarian intervention is grim. Further, failing to identify…
Book: Social Innovation and Impact in Nonprofit Leadership
Tine Hansen-Turton, Nicholas Torres, M.E.D
Springer Publishing Company, May 28, 2014 304 pages
Overview
This timely textbook, reflecting the trends and developments in the nonprofit sector over the past decade, encompasses the core competencies required to lead nonprofit organizations through social innovation and impact during the 21st century. It fills a knowledge gap for leaders, managers, practitioners, students, faculty members, and providers in this rapidly growing field by providing a comprehensive framework for how to run and manage nonprofits. This includes all of the tools needed to affect social change through ethical business practices, management and leadership business strategies, social marketing, and policy analysis across government, nonprofits, and philanthropy.
