From state agencies to ordinary citizens
- Author(s)
- Adriana Allen, Linda Zilbert Soto, Julia Wesely, Teresa Belkow, Vladimir Ferro, Rita Lambert, Ian Langdown, Amaru Samanamú
- Abstract
The understanding of linkages between disaster risk and urban development has seen important advances in recent decades. However, it falls short in addressing the production and reproduction of so-called urban “risk traps”, which are accumulation cycles of everyday risks and small-scale disasters with highly localized impacts, particularly on impoverished urban dwellers. Drawing on the action-research project cLIMA sin Riesgo, this paper examines risk-mitigating investment actions of state agencies, residents and communities in Barrios Altos, in the historic centre of Lima, Peru, and José Carlos Mariátegui, in the periphery. The analysis shows that residents tend to be caught in risk traps not necessarily due to lacking investments, but paradoxically despite them and their unintended effects. Furthermore, accumulated fragmented investments erode the capacity to act of those at risk and perpetuate risk accumulation cycles. The paper argues for a re-assessment of risk-mitigation investments and their intended and unintended consequences, and suggests routes to address current shortcomings in order to disrupt “risk traps”.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Geography and Regional Research
- External organisation(s)
- University College London, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery of the United Nations Development Programme (Peru), Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru (MEF), cLIMA sin Riesgo
- Journal
- Environment and Urbanization
- Volume
- 29
- Pages
- 477-502
- No. of pages
- 26
- ISSN
- 0956-2478
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247817706061
- Publication date
- 10-2017
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105902 Natural hazards, 509001 Action research, 507019 Urban development planning
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous), Urban Studies
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/bc532a11-e64f-4955-b984-f3daf5ab74c0