Download or read book Dreadful Visitations written by Alessa Johns and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, varying responses to catastrophe have revealed much about a society's cultural and philosophical character. In Dreadful Visitations , leading scholars of different disciplines examine eighteenth-century responses to natural disaster, showing how human agency played an active role in the creation of destructive circumstances, and how these disasters helped to establish national and moral identities in the Age of Reason. Contributors: David Arnold, Daniel Gordon, Carla Hesse, George Starr, Alan Taylor, Steven Tobriner and Charles Walker.

Download or read book Public Values and Public Interest written by Barry Bozeman and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-24 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic individualism and market-based values dominate today's policymaking and public management circles—often at the expense of the common good. In his new book, Barry Bozeman demonstrates the continuing need for public interest theory in government. Public Values and Public Interest offers a direct theoretical challenge to the "utility of economic individualism," the prevailing political theory in the western world. The book's arguments are steeped in a practical and practicable theory that advances public interest as a viable and important measure in any analysis of policy or public administration. According to Bozeman, public interest theory offers a dynamic and flexible approach that easily adapts to changing situations and balances today's market-driven attitudes with the concepts of common good advocated by Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and John Dewey. In constructing the case for adopting a new governmental paradigm based on what he terms "managing publicness," Bozeman demonstrates why economic indices alone fail to adequately value social choice in many cases. He explores the implications of privatization of a wide array of governmental services—among them Social Security, defense, prisons, and water supplies. Bozeman constructs analyses from both perspectives in an extended study of genetically modified crops to compare the policy outcomes using different core values and questions the public value of engaging in the practice solely for the sake of cheaper food. Thoughtful, challenging, and timely, Public Values and Public Interest shows how the quest for fairness can once again play a full part in public policy debates and public administration.

Download or read book What is a Disaster written by Enrico Louis Quarantelli and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a Disaster? Addresses the most basic question in the field: that of defining the phenomenon of study. For theoretical advancement, it is important that researchers begin to develop a consensus about the meaning of disasters and related phenomena. With the rise in international terrorism, one must clarify whether these events are disasters and if so, what kind of disasters. Similarly, in addition to natural disasters, do we include riots, explosions, nuclear power plant accidents, damn collapses, and land subsidence under the same conceptual umbrella? What practical and theoretical differences does it make if the same label is used or not used for such different situations? What is a Disaster? Brings together twelve social scientists representing eight disciplines and seven countries to share their definition and vision of disasters. In the process, a wide range of views are expressed and issues raised regarding the relationship of academic versus practical definitions, the impact of grouping types of disasters in different ways, and the epistemologies on which theoretical growth should rest. The forum provided involves the presentation of each author's views, followed by a discussant's critique, and closed with a response from the author. The editor's close the volume with discussions of the theoretical framework of disaster research and an agenda for disaster research in the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Disaster Governance in Urbanising Asia written by Michelle Ann Miller and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-09 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited book approaches the threat and impact of environmental disasters on Asia’s urban populations from a governance perspective. It adopts a multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approach to disaster governance that emphasises the importance of multiple stakeholders in preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters and their cascading impacts in Asia’s cities. The contributors to this volume take a broad view of the multifaceted causalities and the interconnected threats and vulnerabilities of environmental disasters in urbanising Asia. As such, the book is an invitation to advance scholarship in the search for more effective, comprehensive and inclusive disaster preparedness agendas, recovery programs and development priorities.