Risk and Vulnerability

The paper aims to reveal one integrated global map which points out the major geographical inequalities in providing basic utilities across the countries using multivariate analysis and thematic cartography. Sixteen indicators with global coverage were selected taking into account the waste collection services, sanitation facilities, drinking water sources, energy, electricity, habitat and demographic conditions. Several data are broken down for the total, urban and rural population in order to outline the rural-urban disparities between and within countries. A special focus is given to waste collection coverage, in order to compute a comprehensive global assessment of this key indicator of public health, which is one of the poorest monitored basic utility. The world countries were divided into 10 classes according to the hierarchical cluster analysis. Each class has particular features outlining the gaps between high, middle and low-income countries with direct impact on quality of life, public health, and environment.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

Située  à  une  trentaine  de  kilomètres  de  l’océan  atlantique,  sur  le  bas  plateau  côtier  du Bassin du Wouri, en milieu équatorial humide avec près de 4000 mm de pluies/an, la ville de Douala  compte  environ  de  3  millions  d’habitants  sur  une  superficie  de  886  Km².  Cet  espace urbain  est  vulnérable  à  de  nombreux  risques  naturels  au  rang  desquels  les  inondations,  les glissements de terrain, l’érosion des sols et les ravinements. 
Dans  ce  contexte  marqué  par  la  variété  et  la  gravité  de  la  vulnérabilité,  le  nombre d’habitants  et  l’importance  économique  et  politique  de  ce  territoire,  la  question  de développement urbain durable est devenue primordiale pour la municipalité, ce d’autant plus que la  récurrence  des  évènements  dommageables  a  montré  la  fragilité  du  système  urbain.    La Communauté  Urbaine  de  Douala  (CUD)  est  officiellement  responsable  de  la  mise  en  place  de stratégies  visant  l’intégration  des  préoccupations  environnementales  et  de  développement durable  dans  les  axes  stratégiques  de  développement  urbain  à  l’échelle  local.  Compte  tenu  de l’ampleur  de  la  tâche  et  d’un  budget  limité,  le  souci  légitime  des  autorités  municipales  est d’optimiser  la  gestion  des  risques  en  ciblant  de  manière  efficace  les  actions  préventives.  Le programme CDS, « City Development Strategy » développé par la municipalité de Douala est né de cette préoccupation, avec pour principale composante l’élaboration de l’Agenda 21 local en tant que volet social et environnemental de cette vaste stratégie de développement de la ville et de son aire métropolitaine à l’horizon 2025. 
Ce travail de recherche a permis d’apprécier et de mettre en évidence l’état de mise en œuvre  opérationnelle  des  stratégies  d’intégration  des  préoccupations  environnementales  et  de développement durable dans la politique de la ville de Douala. En analysant avec minutie cette politique  de  par  ses  modalités,  ses  objectifs,  ses  moyens  et  ses  instruments  d’action.  L’enjeu étant  de    mettre  au  goût  du  jour  les  facteurs  potentiels  de  réussite  et/ou  d’échec  ainsi  que  les retombées  diverses  de  cette  politique  destinée  à  accroître  la  résilience  urbaine  aux  risque
naturels.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

Actors in competitive environments are bound to decide and act under conditions of uncertainty because they rarely have accurate foreknowledge of how their opponents will respond and when they will respond. Just as a competitor makes a move to improve their standing on a given variable relative to a target competitor, she should expect the latter to counteract with an iterative lagged asymmetric response, that is, with a sequence of countermoves (iteration) that is very different in kind from its trigger (asymmetry) and that will be launched at some unknown point in the future (time lag). The paper explicates the broad relevance of the newly proposed concept of " iterative lagged asymmetric responses " to the social study of temporality and to fields as diverse as intelligence and counterintelligence studies, strategic management, futures studies, military theory, and long-range planning. By bringing out in the foreground and substantiating the observation that competitive environments place a strategic premium on surprise, the concept of iterative lagged asymmetric responses makes a contribution to the never-ending and many-pronged debate about the extent to which the future can be predicted.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X17752652

This study aimed to analyze the cultural theory as an alternative paradigm in disaster risk reduction. In
this case, the focus of the study of cultural theory lies in the perception of public knowledge about the
disaster. Modern rational society will assess disaster is a day-to-day issues that have an adequate
knowledge of disaster while traditional societies tend to view disasters as divine punishment and despair
when disasters come. Applications of cultural theory have become an important and significant to analyze
the risk characteristics of the regime in each country. Each regime has its own risk model of disaster
management are different depending on the geography and spatial. The birth of the idea of risk regulatory
regime is a manifestation of cultural theory by placing the state as the dominant actor in disaster issues. The
consequence is that the state has a different orientation in view of the disaster that spans the 'hierarchy in
disaster risk reduction policies.

Although it is probably the best-known Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) tool, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is far from the only option available. This paper introduces one of the alternatives: The Structured What-If Technique (SWIFT). SWIFT is a flexible, high-level risk identification technique that can be used on a standalone basis, or as part of a staged approach to make more efficient use of bottom-up methods like FMEA.

In this paper we describe the method, assess the evidence related to its use in healthcare using a systematic literature review, and suggest ways in which it could be better adapted for use in the healthcare industry. Based on the limited
evidence available, it appears that healthcare workers find it easy to learn, easy to use, and credible. Especially when used as part of a staged approach, SWIFT appears capable of playing a useful role as component of the PHA
armamentarium.

Over the last decade, a growing body of literature has emerged which is concerned with the question of what form a promising concept of social resilience might take. In this article we argue that social resilience has the potential to be crafted into a coherent analytic framework that can build on scientific knowledge from the established concept of social vulnerability, and offer a fresh perspective on today’s challenges of global change. Based on a critical review of recently published literature on the issue, we propose to define social resilience as being comprised of three dimensions: 1. Coping capacities –the ability of social actors to cope with and overcome all kinds of adversities; 2. Adaptive capacities – their ability to learn from past experiences and adjust themselves to future challenges in their everyday lives; 3. Transformative capacities – their ability to craft sets of institutions that foster individual welfare and sustainable societal robustness towards future crises. Viewed in this way, the search for ways to build social resilience – especially in the livelihoods of the poor and marginalized – is revealed to be not only a technical, but also a political issue.

Back cover text: If the new fin de siècle marks a recurrence of the real, Bent Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power epitomizes that development and sets new standards for social and political inquiry. The Danish town of Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding the real workings of power, and for grasping what they mean to our more general concerns of social and political organization. Politics, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow  a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader witnesses, firsthand, the classic and endless drama which defines what modernity and democracy are and can be.

Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault evaluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and bringing about, democratic social change.

This article provides an analysis of the problematic of foresight in traditional Chinese thought, articulating it with current developments in the epistemology of futures studies, planning theory, and strategic management. It is argued that in Chinese thought the answer to the question " Can the future be predicted? " depends on the forecasting horizon: whereas the immediate future can be sensed and taken advantage of by immersing oneself in the evolving situation, the remote future is fundamentally unpredictable. These dual answers are entrenched in discussions of what constitutes wisdom, opening up productive spaces of encounter between the problematic of foresight and the problematic of wisdom. https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.2018.22(3).00A35

The circumstances that have given rise to the Anthropocene concept require that we reassess our assumptions about human agency and human effects on the earth system. Human activities, and thus human choices, clearly lie at the root of the great environmental predicament of our age, which is not primarily an ecological crisis, though its ramifications are far reaching within ecological systems. Rather, it is a crisis of culture. If the humanities "are a unique repository of knowledge and insight into the rich diversity of the human experience" from which we learn to make sense of our "responses, motivations and actions" in the face of challenges, then it is risky to omit humanities knowledge from scientific assessment and consultation processes informing environmental policy.

The complete article is available for free viewing on the Future Earth site: bit.ly/1QoHPeC .

Going against both the naive techno-optimist of ‘greening business as usual’ and a resurgent ‘catastrophism’ within green thinking and politics, The Politics of Unsustainability offers an analysis of the causes of unsustainability and diminished human flourishing. It makes a case for seeing that it is profound and deepening unsustainability and growing injustice that characterises the modern world, and that therefore the focus of green or other progressive thinking should shift from its current framing in terms of ‘sustainability’ ‘sustainable development’ and ‘theories of justice’. The books locates the causes of unsustainability in dominant capitalist modes of production, debt-based consumer culture, the imperative for orthodox economic growth and the dominant ideology of neo-classical economics. At the level of developing a progressive and critical theoretical understanding of unsustainability, it argues for the importance of integrating vulnerability, which has been largely neglected by both mainstream western political theory and analyses of the current global ecological crisis. It suggests that valuable insights into the causes of and alternatives to unsustainability can be found in a critical embracing of human vulnerability and dependency as both constitutive and ineliminable aspects of what it means to be human. Rather than seeing invulnerability as the appropriate response, the book defends resilience, the ability to ‘cope with’ rather than ‘solve’ vulnerability, as more productive. The Politics of Unsustainability offers a trenchant critique of the dominant neo-classical economic groupthink, which the book argues must be seen not as some value neutral form of ‘expert knowledge’ but as a thoroughly ideological ‘commonsense’ that has corrupted and limited creative ways of thinking about and through our current predicament. It offers a green political economic alternative which replaces economic growth with economic security, and views economic growth as having done its work in the minority, affluent world, which should now focus on human flourishing and lowering socio-economic equality and fostering solidarity as part of that new re-orientation of public policy. Complementing this green political economy, The Politics of Unsustainability outlines and develops an account of ‘green republicanism’, which represents an innovative and original contribution to debates on the political responses to the crises and opportunities that constitute global unsustainability. The Politics of Unsustainability draws widely from a range of disciplines and thinkers, from cultural critic Susan Sontag to the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, contemporary debates in green political thinking, and the latest thinking in heterodox and green economics, to produce a highly relevant, timely and provocatively original statement on the human predicament in the 21st century.

Purpose
    – With an aim to develop an integrated approach for effectively managing natural disasters, this paper has three research objectives. First, it provides a framework for effective natural disaster management from a public project management perspective. Second, it proposes an integrated approach for successfully and effectively managing disaster crisis. Third, it specifies a set of critical success factors for managing disaster related public projects.

    Design/methodology/approach
    – A detailed case study of the tsunami was carried out to identify specific problems associated with managing natural disaster in Thailand.

    Findings
    – The investigations reveal that the country lacked a master plan for natural disaster management including prediction, warning, mitigation and preparedness, unspecified responsible governmental authority, unclear line of authority, ineffective collaboration among institutions in different levels, lack of encouragement for participation of local and international NGOs, lack of education and knowledge for tsunami in potential disaster effected communities, and lack of information management or database system.

    Research limitations/implications
    – This study identifies the specific problems associated with natural disasters management based on a detailed case study of managing tsunami disaster in Thailand in 2004.

    Practical implications
    – The proposed integrated approach which includes both proactive and reactive strategies can be applied to managing natural disasters successfully in Thailand.

    Originality/value
    – This paper highlights the importance of having proactive and reactive strategies for natural disaster management.

van Westen, C.J. and Greiving, S. (2017) Environmental Hazards Methodologies for Risk Assessment and Management. In: Environmental hazards Methodologies for Risk Assessment and Management / ed. by . N.R. Dalezios. London: International Water Institute (IWA) publishing, 2017. ISBN 978-1-7804-0712-8

Does the contemporary dominance of haut finance, or ‘mighty finance’, constitute a new era of globalizing economics? Or is it just another phase of globalization and not much different from the processes of financial exchange evident at the end of the nineteenth century? These questions are dramatic but unhelpful. Such dichotomous ways of understanding globalizing finance have been behind a series of debates in the globalization literature. They have tended to disallow the possibility of talking about both long-run processes and significant (qualitative) changes in the contemporary period of intensifying globalization. This volume presents many different takes on these central questions of globalizing finance. Nevertheless, the framing consideration of the volume is that we need to be able to say, without being contradictory, that at one level we can see long-term continuities in the mode of exchange; at another level there are new formations of practice that in their emerging dominance have reconstituted the face of contemporary global finance.

Financial exchange, as an expression of the changing modes of exchange across history began as far back as the development of coinage in antiquity. It has undergone significant and momentous shifts in its dominant forms of practice. However, these have tended to layer across prior formations rather than simply replace them. For example, derivatives exchange as one of the driving globalizing modalities of the last decade, and which involves hedging against fluctuations in the value of a currency, overlays the agricultural futures markets of the nineteenth century when the producers of such basics as wool and wheat hedged against the possibility that when their produce went to market the price may have fallen. In other words, the emerging dominance of derivatives might be said to represent a further aspect of what Karl Polanyi calls the ‘Great Transformation’ of international financial exchange,  even as it has it historical antecedents in dealing with the long-run practical problems of a time-delay between seeding a crop and selling it in an international market.

This intervention contributes to recent work in urban geography that integrates the conceptual frameworks of assemblages and actor-network theory by highlighting two additional directions that require a more rigorous and detailed theorization. The first direction concerns the relationship between contingency and necessity in urban assemblages and actor-networks and this paper delineates four specific propositions as a starting point for further reflection. The second direction suggests that urban assemblages and actor-networks require a more explicit vocabulary for thinking about competition and cooperation within and between cities. To this end, the paper introduces a new concept – delayed asymmetric counterforces – that can foster a better understanding of competition-induced urban change and destabilization. The novel concept is developed in conjunction with a typology of delays in competitive urban dynamics, which helps illuminate how delayed asymmetric counterforces are both a cause and an effect of the complexity inherent in the urban realm.

Este libro nació como parte de uno de los objetivos de la Cátedra de Jóvenes Investigadores No. 95 Innovación y desarrollo urbano sustentable, es resultado de un trabajo coordinado entre investigadores de diversas instituciones a través de la Red Multidisciplinaria de Investigación en Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (REDMIDUS) como parte de un programa de investigación de largo aliento, referente a los problemas urbanos actuales en México y la sustentabilidad, contiene artículos que van desde fenómenos como cambios de uso del suelo, crecimiento de los desarrollos inmobiliarios, democracia participativa y gobernanza, manejo y gestión de espacios públicos, análisis y estudio de los fenómenos de movilidad, problemas relacionados con la estructura en zonas metropolitanas, las cuentas ambientales y su relación con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), la gestión del agua bajo la perspectiva de la economía ambiental, análisis de los problemas de vulnerabilidad urbana, el turismo de segundas residencias como fenómeno de expansión urbana, el gasto catastrófico en servicios de salud en zonas metropolitanas en México, entre otros. La aportación de este libro, es propiamente la riqueza de los estudios urbanos, tanto a nivel teórico, conceptual y estudios de caso. Como resultado de nuestra investigación colectiva encontramos que el fenómeno urbano es muy amplio y complejo, requiere de la participación de especialistas de distintas áreas, así como proponer respuestas de acuerdo a los contextos variados del país, esperamos que esta publicación sirva para ampliar sus conocimientos al tema del desarrollo urbano sustentable.

Este libro es una contribución de la Red de Desastres Asociados a Fenómenos Hidrometeorológicos y Climáticos (REDESClim-CONACYT), que tiene por propósito mejorar el conocimiento y la capacidad de respuesta a la variabilidad climática y a las manifestaciones naturales intensas como los huracanes, inundaciones, ondas de calor, sequías y todo tipo de fenómenos hidrometeorológicos que pudieran resultar amenazantes para la sociedad. Con tal propósito, la REDESClim promueve cinco líneas temáticas: 1) Monitoreo, bases de datos y diseminación de información. 2) Diagnóstico y análisis de procesos. 3) Pronóstico meteorológico y prevención de desastres. 4) Modelación climática y análisis de procesos físicos. y 5) Políticas públicas y estrategia de comunicación.
Por lo anterior, este libro se gestó con la idea de mostrar ese quehacer científico a partir de tres líneas temáticas que inciden en los fenómenos hidrometeorológicos:
1. Las respuestas institucionales y políticas frente a fenómenos hidrometeorológicos;
2. El monitoreo y análisis de fenómenos hidrometeorológicos;
3. Las respuestas sociales a eventos hidrometeorológicos en zonas costeras.
En conjunto, los capítulos muestran al lector un catálogo de métodos y técnicas que permiten analizar tanto las manifestaciones naturales, como los riesgos, vulnerabilidades y las respuestas que las sociedades han desplegado para monitorear, mitigar y enfrentar ciertas amenazas naturales.

BACKGROUND: Fishbone diagrams have been widely promoted as a systems-focused hazard analysis tool for use in root cause analysis, but they suffer from a number of structural weaknesses, including a unidirectional structure that only takes into account forces that promote an accident (ignoring those that make the accident less likely or less severe) and a means of displaying these forces that does not convey any difference in strength of influence. In a separate but related issue, many healthcare organizations suffer from a lack of change management expertise.

PROPOSED SOLUTION: To address these concerns, I present a novel technique, the Lovebug diagram, which draws from both Fishbone diagrams and force-field analysis (an approach to analyzing planned change). This new technique adds value to both its progenitor methods, while retaining their key strengths and ease of use. It can be used both prospectively, to assess planned changes, and retrospectively to assess unplanned (accidental) departures from the status quo.

DISCUSSION: The Lovebug diagram is a more powerful analytical tool than its progenitor methods; however, overall adoption of systems-focused tools for root cause analysis remains suboptimal. Additional research is needed to determine how best to promote a truly systems-focused approach to healthcare root cause analysis. Beyond this retrospective use of the technique, it represents a simple tool to assist healthcare organizations with prospective change management.

Available from: http://cri.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/10/25/1356262213510855.abstract

Abstract

Besides their singular urban and cultural realities, in regard to rebuilding and development programs the rapidly growing cities of the Portuguese Speaking Countries Community (CPLP) seem to deal with similar challenges. Despite Portuguese alignment with international guides to reduce vulnerability and building communities' resilience to natural hazards, little attention has been paid to these issues within the bilateral framework for cooperation.

This paper focuses a reframing of the architectural practice developed in humanitarian context; it tries to bridge the specific gaps between architects, humanitarians and developers working within vulnerable communities. Ultimately, it aims at applying this knowledge to the CPLP.

Embracing the action-research method uses the data collected from and progress with the field work done by the project Sustainable Urban Renewal: Energy Efficient Building for Africa (SURE Africa) and Portuguese-based-NGO Building 4Humanity.

Adopting a trans-disciplinary approach, it incorporates ‘humanitarian architecture' with resilience and social innovation features such as the emphasis on connecting people, resources and ideas, eco-efficiency, empowerment and communities' engagement in design. To improve the dialogue between ‘humanitarians', ‘designers' and householders, research explores translational tools, namely mapping, web-based platforms for co-design and tools for building resilience.

The analysis undertaken suggests that trans-disciplinary and intercultural dialogue play a crucial role in the process of assisting local leaders and households to (re) build on community assets and internal capacities, introducing ‘eco'-efficiency solutions without mischaracterizing traditional settlements and architectural knowledge and caring about previous lifestyles and livelihoods.
Keywords : humanitarian architecture, resilience, social innovation, eco-efficiency, Africa

La référence à la personne vulnérable s’inscrit dans l’évolution conceptuelle du droit international à partir des deux guerres mondiales sur la place de l’individu et sa protection. L’issue de la guerre froide permet une réflexion nouvelle sur la théorie de la sécurité internationale, désormais axée sur l’individu. La notion de personne vulnérable constitue l’aboutissement actuel de cette évolution. Elle interroge sur la façon dont le droit international parvient à s’en saisir et sur les conséquences de cette appropriation.
Si la vulnérabilité qualifie aujourd’hui des objets disparates (Etat, zone rurale, système informatique, espèce animale), une étude centrée sur la personne physique permet de confronter à la sphère juridique internationale la dimension ontologique de la vulnérabilité de la personne, dont l’étude est issue des sciences humaines. Le droit international parvient-il à protéger l’individu en tenant compte de sa complexité particulière, mise en lumière par la référence à sa vulnérabilité ? A cet égard, le fait que le recours à la notion par le droit international puisse devenir un facteur de vulnérabilité de l’individu justifiait une étude centrée sur celui-ci.
Cette étude nécessitait de retenir une définition la plus précise possible de ce que recouvre la notion de personne vulnérable. Or, c’est précisément son caractère flou qui constitue son intérêt juridique : son utilisation vise à apporter une protection là où elle est absente ou lacunaire. Le danger, qu’on semble d’ailleurs observer actuellement, est alors un emploi exponentiel et inconsidéré de la notion, qui nuit à son efficacité. Pour conserver son effectivité – d’ailleurs en construction –, la notion nécessite d’être encadrée.

La démarche analytique s’est organisée en deux temps.
Le premier objectif consistait à déterminer la signification de la notion, d’un point de vue conceptuel et d’un point de vue pratique. Qu’est ce qu’une personne vulnérable en droit international et comment l’identifie-t-on concrètement ? Une définition matérielle a ainsi été dégagée : la personne vulnérable désigne la personne dont la faiblesse particulière la prédispose à la réalisation d’un risque. La notion se définit par la corrélation de deux critères permanents : sa faiblesse particulière et le risque qui pèse en conséquence sur elle. Ces critères indispensables à la qualification juridique sont cependant variables en eux-mêmes : tant la faiblesse que le risque peuvent adopter des formes nombreuses, et une sélection est alors nécessaire. En l’absence de statut, aucun régime juridique déterminé ne peut être systématiquement appliqué aux personnes identifiées comme telles. Le traitement juridique de la personne vulnérable est donc nécessairement contingent.
Le second objectif consistait ainsi à étudier le traitement accordé à cette personne à travers les moyens de protection dont dispose l’ordre juridique international, mais aussi à questionner plus globalement la capacité du droit international contemporain à assurer la protection de la personne vulnérable dans la complexité qu’implique cette notion.
La personne vulnérable suppose une extension du champ d’application du droit international. Se pose alors la question de la capacité de celui-ci à assurer une protection par hypothèse sans cesse renouvelée. L’utilisation de cette notion soulève en réalité certains dangers pour la structure, voire la légitimité du droit international. Ces questionnements poussent à une réflexion sur les soubassements de la protection juridique de l’individu. La vulnérabilité est en effet une donnée complexe qui suppose de repenser les concepts d’égalité, d’autonomie, mais aussi d’intégrer la thématique de l’interdépendance entre les personnes. C’est pourquoi la recherche d’une protection effective invite à le replacer dans un cadre théorique différent. L’étude invite à adopter comme cadre une éthique du care, dans la mesure où le care, issu des sciences sociales, prend précisément pour fondement ce constat de vulnérabilité.

Vaclav Havel observed that a strong civil society is a crucial condition of strong democracy. Empowering civil society is a central concern for the project of democracy, just as the question of how best to think about such empowerment is important to social and political theory. But what is ‘civil society’? A search for clear definitions in the relevant literature is in vain. Not because the concept lacks definitions; rather the definitions are too multiple and varied to bring clarity. Most writers on civil society agree, however, that civil society has an institutional core constituted by voluntary associations outside the sphere of the state and the economy. Such associations range from, for example, churches, cultural associations, sport clubs and debating societies to independent media, academies, groups of concerned citizens, grass-roots initiatives and organizations of gender, race and sexuality, all the way to occupational associations, political parties and labour unions (Habermas 1992a: 453).

A key strand of research for social and economic historians of the pre-industrial period is the relationship between city and countryside. Sometimes urban and rural environments enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships, though in other cases cities reduced their rural hinterlands to poverty and decay – the question is, why? By focusing on late-medieval Florence and Tuscany, this paper moves away from approaching this question through an ‘urban bias’, and suggests the answers can be found within the structural configuration of rural societies themselves. Essentially, some rural regions were well set up to repel urban predatory tendencies, while other societies were susceptible to exploitation.

Risk assessment, by itself, does nothing to reduce risk or improve safety. It can only change outcomes by informing the design and management of effective risk control interventions. But current practice in healthcare risk management suffers from an almost complete lack of support for risk control. This first installment of a 2-part series on rebalancing risk management describes a new framework to guide risk control practice: The Process for Active Risk Control.

Una serie de trabajos provenientes de investigadores, expertos, profesores y consultores compilados en el año 2008 se presentan aquí como una suma de miradas siempre complementarias, aunque no necesariamente con el mismo perfil ni las mismas interpretaciones sobre el problema. El riesgo enseña una vez más su condición polisémica, ya en el discurso como en la aplicabilidad.

Stress testing is one of the effective and popular ways to alert bank management with regard to adverse unexpected outcomes related to variety of risks and provides an indication how much capital adequacy ratio (CAR) might be needed to absorb losses if any large shocks occur. In this paper, Sonali Bank Limited is considered, operates in Bangladesh based on BB rules. Besides that, several indicators for conducted stress testing of non-performing loan (NPL), non-performing loan in two major sectors, equity price risk, liquidity shocks and Interest rate shocks. This study has been used the data for the years of 2013 and 2014 taken from the annual report of SBL. Finally, this study has some interesting implications that might help the senior management, policy makers, depositors, owners as well as stakeholders of the bank.

"When I Wear My Alligator Boots examines how the lives of dispossessed men and women are affected by the rise of narcotrafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. In particular, the book explores a crucial tension at the heart of the “war on drugs”: despite the violence and suffering brought on by drug cartels, for the rural poor in Mexico’s north, narcotrafficking offers one of the few paths to upward mobility and is a powerful source of cultural meanings and local prestige.

In the borderlands, traces of the drug trade are everywhere: from gang violence in cities to drug addiction in rural villages, from the vibrant folklore popularized in the narco-corridos of Norteña music to the icon of Jesús Malverde, the “patron saint” of narcos, tucked beneath the shirts of local people. In When I Wear My Alligator Boots, the author explores the everyday reality of the drug trade by living alongside its low-level workers, who live at the edges of the violence generated by the militarization of the war on drugs. Rather than telling the story of the powerful cartel leaders, the book focuses on the women who occasionally make their sandwiches, the low-level businessmen who launder their money, the addicts who consume their products, the mules who carry their money and drugs across borders, and the men and women who serve out prison sentences when their bosses' operations go awry."