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