Like a Fish Out of Water: Reconsidering Disaster Recovery and the Role of Place and Social Capital in Community Disaster Resilience

In this paper we draw on the findings of a critical, multi-sited ethnographic study of two rural communities affected by a wildfire in British Columbia, Canada to examine the salience of place, identity, and social capital to the disaster recovery process and community disaster resilience. We argue that a reconfiguration of disaster recovery is required that more meaningfully considers the role of place in the disaster recovery process and opens up the space for a more reflective and intentional consideration of the disorientation and disruption associated with disasters and our organized response to that disorientation. We describe a social-psychological process, reorientation, in which affected individuals and communities navigate the psychological, social and emotional responses to the symbolic and material changes to social and geographic place that result from the fire's destruction. The reorientation process emphasizes the critical importance of place not only as an orienting framework in recovery but also as the ground upon which social capital and community disaster resilience are built. This approach to understanding and responding to the disorientation of disasters has implications for community psychologists and other service providers engaged in supporting disaster survivors. This includes the need to consider the complex dynamic of contextual and cultural factors that influence the disaster recovery process.     

《淮南子》人性说探微

《淮南子》人性说之微可见于四个基本方面。道的根本意义是道的人性意义,主要通过圣人境界予以论述,旨在确保真人境界的至上性,为人们贯通了永恒的精神追求之路。人性特征可概括为人性虚静,又从中阐发出人性善;道的自然性表现为人的自然性,伦理当视这种自然的人性为善。由于心的精神性功能,人心才能够显现人性;而人心显现人性是人心通过自我修养与接受圣人教化相结合的两条途径实现的。由德福未必一致的观点推导出祸福由己,德福关系与祸福关系合而为一。     

Technological Delegation: Responsibility for the Unintended

This article defends three interconnected premises that together demand for a new way of dealing with moral responsibility in developing and using technological artifacts. The first premise is that humans increasingly make use of dissociated technological delegation. Second, because technologies do not simply fulfill our actions, but rather mediate them, the initial aims alter and outcomes are often different from those intended. Third, since the outcomes are often unforeseen and unintended, we can no longer simply apply the traditional (modernist) models for discussing moral responsibility. We need to reinterpret moral responsibility. A schematic layout of a model on Social Role-Responsibility that incorporates these three premises is presented to allow discussion of a new way of interpreting moral responsibility.

Gestion d’une transition et impact sur l’état de santé du personnel

This article is about a case of successful introduction of a technological change in a police department. It presents the links observed between the approach used to manage the transition and the perception that end-users reported regarding their stress, their health condition, and their efficiency at work. End-users of the new system reported a high level of satisfaction towards the method used, with few problems related to their stress, their health condition, and their global efficiency. People who reported such problems also reported more problems integrating the change. Close guidance provided to workers at field level and active support to enhance a fast mastering of the new skills seem to have played a major role.     

"科技的人性化"辨义

科技的人性化近两年来成了学术界讨论的重要问题,但有关“科技的人性化”的含义却较模糊和混乱。对“科技的人性化”进行了概念上的疏理,“科技的人性化”有三层含义：复归科技固有的人性、限定科技的非人性属性的范围、赋予科技以人性关怀。理清“科技的人性化”,将有助于为科技异化的消除寻求到具体途径,有利于科技的健康发展。     

中小学生的灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响：中介和调节效应

汶川地震后1年时,采用灾难暴露程度问卷、主观害怕程度问卷、社会支持问卷和创伤后应激障碍症状量表,对地震极重灾区的3058名中小学生进行调查,考察灾难暴露程度、主观害怕程度、社会支持与创伤后应激障碍的关系。结果发现：（1）震后1年时中小学生创伤后应激障碍的发生率为9.6%,其中有目睹他人死亡经历的学生的创伤后应激障碍发生率为16.2%;（2）灾难暴露程度能正向预测创伤后应激障碍,而主观害怕程度在灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响中起部分中介作用;（3）社会支持在灾难暴露程度与创伤后应激障碍的关系中起调节作用,但不能调节主观害怕程度与创伤后应激障碍之间的关系。其中,无论支持的性质如何,父母和教师的支持都能缓解灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响,而同学和其他人的支持则不具有调节效应。     

The analytic decision‐making preference model to evaluate the disaster readiness in emergency departments: The A.D.T. model

In recent years, a series of important emergencies have been taken place worldwide in industrial plants. After the occurrence of a disaster, it is essential to activate the correct emergency procedures. Particularly, it is important to direct people injured in hospitals which are able to handle emergencies. Thus, nowadays, the emergency services require a management process starting from the disaster moment to the involvement of all actors participating in the process to provide integral, safe, and quality attention. The aim of this study is to help hospitals become better prepared for major disasters and public health emergencies and to evaluate the readiness of emergency departments for a disaster situation. A hybrid model called the “analytic decision‐making preference model” based on analytic hierarchy process, decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory, and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution methods is proposed. Analytic hierarchy process is used to determine the criteria and subcriteria weights. Then, decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory is used to evaluate interdependence between criteria and subcriteria. After this, technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution is applied to rank the emergency departments from highest to lowest according to their closeness coefficient. A real‐life application in Colombia is presented.     

Evil intent and design responsibility

Mass casualty attacks in recent years have demonstrated the need to include “evil intent” as a design consideration. Three recent actual or potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attacks did not involve nuclear bombs or other devices designed as weapons, but rather benign objects used with evil intent. Just as unplanned events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and user misuse have been codified into design requirements based on the likelihood and potential impact of the event, “evil intent” has to become part of the design process for buildings, vehicles, equipment, and other items. The endstate should be reasonable additions to existing codes and standards such that it is clear what is and is not designed for. In the absence of specific design guidance, professionals with appropriate expertise can assess potential for “evil intent” and provide recommendations to design out or warn against this potential harm to public safety, particularly when codified requirements are not present. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003. Author Note: Bart Kemper, PE, is the principal engineer for Kemper Imageering, Inc. A significant portion of his work has been involved in industrial equipment design, product design, and the design and analysis of different security devices as well as performing simulations, computer modelling, reliability studies, blast analyses, and FMEA analyses on commercial equipment, including marine, offshore, and industrial facilities. He is also a US Army Reserve captain in the Corps of Engineers and was mobilized and deployed overseas in February 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a member of the 412^th Engineer Command, headquartered in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A significant portion of his duties involved reviewing intelligence, analyzing potential courses of action, and evaluating risks with regard to Iraqi and Coalition activities in the northern Iraqi oilfields as well as base camp design and infrastructure engineering. This paper is unclassified and has been cleared for publication.     

After the storm: enduring differences in mother-child recollections of traumatic and nontraumatic events

Despite a growing literature on the collaborative reminiscing of mothers and children, little is known about the kinds of things mothers and children discuss as they recollect shared traumatic experiences. Do mother-child recollections of a traumatic event differ from their recollections of more benign events? To address this question, mother-child dyads (N=29) discussed a traumatic event, namely a devastating tornado, and two nontraumatic events (one that preceded and one that followed the tornado). Each dyad discussed all three events 4-months post-tornado and again 6 months later. Whereas conversations about both event types (traumatic and nontraumatic) varied with children's age, dyads' recollections of the tornado were significantly longer, more narratively coherent, and more complete than their recollections of nontraumatic events. These differences largely endured over the 6-month retention interval.     

Pragmatism as a research program--a reply to Arras

This paper is a reaction to an article by John Arras published earlier in this journal. In this article Arras argues that freestanding pragmatism has little new to offer to bioethics. We respond to some of Arras' arguments and conclude that, although he overstates his case at certain points, his critique is, broadly speaking, correct. We then introduce and discuss an alternative approach to pragmatist ethics, one which puts to work the ideas and insights of pragmatism conceived as a broad philosophical movement, without lapsing into a canon dependent approach. The approach we propose exhibits a number of characteristics that differ from Arras'saccount of freestanding pragmatism and offers something new to bioethics.