introduction: world views, values, and political dimensions session 3
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction:
World Views, Values, and Political Dimensions
Session 3
Session 3 2
Session Objectives
Define a “world view,” describe a variety of differing world views, and discuss how world view influences the understanding of disasters and human behavior in relation to hazards
Define “values,” describe the way that value commitments influence behavior in relation to hazards and disasters, and provide a summary of their own core personal values
Discuss how world views and values influence policy toward risk and risk management and also the politics of public reaction to disasters
Session 3 3
What is a World View?
Ways that people give meaning to what happens around them– Are usually unconscious and passed along from
parents to children– Concern ultimate questions like the meaning of life
and death– Answer questions about how humans fit into
nature and society– Can be organized within the teachings of a religion
or philosophy, but don’t have to be
Session 3 4
Competing World Views
LOGOS
Humans have some unique role or agency in the
world and its happenings
COSMOS
Humans are insignificant parts
of something much larger, within which
human agency plays no part
Session 3 5
World Views, Hazards, and Disasters
World view can influence how extreme events in nature are perceived– An earthquake or storm can be seen as an
“Act of God” or natural event
Responses to natural hazards can vary:– Folk (pre-industrial) adjustments– Technological adjustments– Comprehensive (post-industrial) adjustments
Session 3 6
What are Values?
Guidelines for behavior and decisions that are generally consistent with and derived from world views
May be explicit and conscious or simply internalized as the “right” answer questions such as:– What is the right thing to do? What must I do?– What is fair in a given situation? What is just?– What do I owe a stranger simply because that person is a human
being in need?– How much should my individual opinion or need or desire county
in society? Exist and influence decisions/behavior at various levels:
– Person– Family– Society– Humanity
Session 3 7
Values and Disaster Management
Should professional standards alone be enough to ensure that an engineer designs or a contract builds according to safety bodes, or is law and enforcement required?
What is “acceptable” risk in society? How should that level of risk be determined?
Are there some risks society can or should be more democratic about managing and others where that is impossible, difficult, or undesirable?
Is it fair that low income people sometimes live in more dangerous buildings than the affluent?
Should those with more resources keep helping again and again after disasters all over the world?
Values are expressed in disaster management whenever someone tries to answer one of the following questions
Session 3 8
Role of Values in Disasters
Value Conflict– “Equality” vs “Efficiency”
Community’s Right to Know Is There a Human Right to Protection from
Disasters?– Differing world views answer this question
differently
Session 3 9
World Views, Values, and Politics
Politics and laws are based, explicitly or implicitly, on world views and values
Poor performance in disasters can cause governments to be replaced
Local politics are often heavily influenced by the way citizens, and organizations and informal groups, filter hazards and disaster occurrences through their world views and values