Community change: Water management through the use of social media,the case of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin

Social media can influence behavior, disseminate knowledge and impact on social change during times of conflict. Communication literature is important when considering community members’ perception of priority areas of the media, however, limited attention has focused on communication theory in depth, through the use of Social Media. This qualitative study explores the Australian Government Department, The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and their effective use of social media to engage with a community previously in conflict with the Government.     

Environmental Disasters and Disastrous Policies: An Overview from India

Though disasters have been important recurring events in South Asia, the policy framework for addressing the issues arising from disaster has been weak. Taking an alternative perspective on the definition of disaster itself, this article attempts to address the cause of the increasing numbers of disasters in India. I posit that the nation‐state still understands disasters as a natural phenomenon, rather than as an intersection between conditions of vulnerability and actual hazards. This is to be observed in the disaster policies adopted. Hence, this article emphasizes the inclusion of ‘vulnerability’ as paramount.     

地震异地复课高中生需要——以玉树106名学生为例

本文采用调查问卷及深度访谈技术,对玉树地震异地复课高中生需要进行综合分析,发现异地复课生对新的环境不太适应,对生活方式不太习惯,尤其由于自身基础知识较差、地震造成心理创伤而导致压力过大和不良心理因素增加。针对以上问题,本文依托社会工作的视角,初步探讨了应对的专业策略。     

一位农学家笔下的灾害实录——明末湖州沈氏与《奇荒纪事》

明末湖州农学家沈氏,身当灾害频仍、社会动乱之世,撰成《奇荒纪事》一文。它详细记录当时的水灾、旱灾和瘟疫灾害实况,论述灾害造成破坏农业生产、引起物价上涨、导致人口损耗、激化阶级矛盾等社会经济影响。该文反映沈氏推行粥赈,厚道助人、缓解灾荒的救灾举措,还表现他反对苛征,耕读节俭、防备灾害的荒政观点。沈氏虽有一定阶级局限,但其文章的科学性、人民性更具价值。     

从外生性嵌入到内生性根植：社会工作本土化发展路径探索——以湖南社工介入四川理县灾后重建为例

5·12汶川大地震发生后,许多外生性社会工作组织与社会工作者出于职业使命与伦理良知,奔赴灾区参与抗震救灾及灾后恢复重建,在四川灾区集体亮相,显示了社会工作专业在灾后恢复重建所发挥的重要作用。在政府主导的灾后重建社会工作发展模式下,社会工作本土化的关键在于从内部挖潜。湘川情社会工作服务队通过嵌入四川理县灾后重建,在向内生性发展取得了显著的成效,探索了一条从外生性嵌入到内生性根植的社会工作本土化发展道路,为当前汶川地震后社会工作的进一步推广提供了可借鉴的路径选择。     

Profiteering from Disaster: Why Planners Need to be Paying More Attention to Insurance

Insurance is overlooked in planning practice and research. Focusing on house and contents insurance in Australia’s disaster-prone areas, I describe why the impacts of insurance availability and pricing on urban form requires greater attention from planners. With increasing climate change-related risks, the growing influence of insurance and insurers is exacerbating social and financial inequity: fostering disadvantaged enclaves and protected pockets of wealth, and sustaining insurer profits. I call for the better integration of insurance within planning, particularly a more considered and careful mobilization of insurance in disaster preparation. I present four research questions for advancing planning in disaster-prone urban areas.     

Predicting Emergency Evacuation and Sheltering Behavior: A Structured Analytical Approach

We offer a general approach to predicting public compliance with emergency recommendations. It begins with a formal risk assessment of an anticipated emergency, whose parameters include factors potentially affecting and affected by behavior, as identified by social science research. Standard procedures are used to elicit scientific experts' judgments regarding these behaviors and dependencies, in the context of an emergency scenario. Their judgments are used to refine the model and scenario, enabling local emergency coordinators to predict the behavior of citizens in their area. The approach is illustrated with a case study involving a radiological dispersion device (RDD) exploded in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. Both groups of experts (national and local) predicted approximately 80-90% compliance with an order to evacuate workplaces and 60-70% compliance with an order to shelter in place at home. They predicted 10% lower compliance for people asked to shelter at the office or to evacuate their homes. They predicted 10% lower compliance should the media be skeptical, rather than supportive. They also identified preparatory policies that could improve public compliance by 20-30%. We consider the implications of these results for improving emergency risk assessment models and for anticipating and improving preparedness for disasters, using Hurricane Katrina as a further case in point.     

多层砖混房屋抗震设防问题探讨

随着我国住宅建设的飞速发展,造型各异的砖混房屋建筑应运而生,其抗震性能越来越受到人们的重视。本文从震害的主要图素入手,探讨抗震设防的措施。     

The Fatigue of Compassionate Social Workers: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Compassion Fatigue

The paper introduces the special issue by first discussing its purpose for the reader and the field of social work. Each article, in the order it appears, is discussed in terms of its contribution to the special issue and the field and linking conceptually each with others in the collection. These articles discuss the special challenges of social workers working with clients who live with the traumatic effects of disasters—both natural and human-caused or human-contributed, war combat, HIV/AIDS, and substance abuse. It is noted that far more research, education, and practice innovation should be devoted to compassion fatigue. The article ends with a final plea not only for such attention but also standards of self-care in addition to standards of professional practice.     

The Market Response to the Sioux City DC-10 Crash

The 1989 DC-10 crash at Sioux City, Iowa presented a rare instance in which a potential threat to safety was both (i) intensely publicized over a short period and (ii) also amenable to the unobtrusive measurement of the market reaction it evoked. As such, it allowed a useful case study of the extent and duration of behavior change caused by a frightening event. Using reservations data from travel agencies in five states, this paper estimates the short-term effects of the Sioux City crash on passenger willingness to fly the DC-10. The data suggest that, in the first few weeks after the crash, more than one third of travelers who would normally have booked DC-10 flights chose instead to fly other aircraft. Within 2 months of the disaster, however, DC-10 bookings rebounded to within 10% of the level that would have been expected had the Sioux City crash not occurred. At no time, apparently, did the airlines that operate DC-10s use their "yield-management" computer pricing systems unofficially to lower DC-10 fares relative to those on other types of plane.