Presentation for MSc Disaster Management & Sustainable Development (May 2011, Northumbria University)

1. “Be Optimistic”
BUZZ HOLLING
TO RESILIENCE AND BEYOND….
Adam Craggs, Francesca Hughes, Simon Steele, Katharine Timpson

2. Outline
 What is resilience?
 Advantages of resilience
 Disadvantages of resilience
 Caste system
 Case studies: Tamil Nadu and Orissa
 Conclusion

3. What is resilience?
“The persistence of relationships within a system
[and is a] measure of the ability of these systems
to absorb changes of state variables, driving
variables and parameters, and still persist”
Resilience Alliance:
•Capable of self-organisation
•Able to build and increase capacity for learning
and adaptation
Holling 1973:16
Resilience Alliance website

4. Advantages
 Expected outcome: “Substantial reduction of
disaster losses, in lives and in the social, economic
and environmental assets of communities and
countries” (UNISDR HFA)
 DRR integrated with Sustainable Development
 Participatory
 Bounce forward
 Better local responses to disastrous events

5. Disadvantages
 Destruction as opportunity
 Achieving resilience – ten-point plan
 Bounce forward
 Tragedy of the Commons
 Pathological resistance to change

6. Caste
 3,000 years old with divine origins, developed by
Brahmin priests designed to maintain their
superiority
 Formalised into four castes
 Dalits seen as untouchable
 „Centuries of hidden apartheid‟
 Untouchability was made illegal
in 1947 however there is still
oppression and power in the
upper castes

7. Caste is Ignored
 Disaster Management Act for India 2005
 Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2010
 Catholic Relief Services Disaster Preparedness
during Development 2004
 Exclusion of Dalits – DRR planning - HFA
 Statistics are not disaggregated – National
Conference on Exclusion of Dalits on DRR
 NGO „caste blindness‟

8. Caste Discrimination in Tamil Nadu
 “Denied access to food, water, shelter and toilets”
 Aid diverted away by higher
castes
 Forced to remove dead bodies
 “Dalits reported being near starvation while caste
fishermen threw surplus sacks of rice in the sea or
put provisions they could not eat into storage”
Gill 2007: 10

9. “Resilience” in Orissa
 North-eastern state in India
 Poorest state in India
 Cyclone 1999
 Floods 2003
 Receiving aid and
compensation
 Urban resilience plans
 Gram Vikas – rural areas Source: http://www.toshalitours.com/orissa-travel-map.htm

10. Conclusion
 Is it not just DRR?
 Perception of resilience will be based on perception
of sustainable development
 How can resilience be useful for people not just
academics and the abstract?
 What is there to “be optimistic” about?

11. References
All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) (no date) Hyogo‟s Priorities and AIDMI‟s Contributions, Available online:
http://www.aidmi.org/aidmi%20contri%20to%20hfa%20etc.asp (accessed 28/04/11)
Catholic Relief Service (2004) Development relief in action: CRS/India experiences with disaster preparedness during development.
CRS South Asia Team, February 2004.
CDRF (2010) Grassroots Women Define Resilience at Asian Academy in Delhi, India, September 13-15, 2010, Available online:
http://www.disasterwatch.net/resources/asianconsultation-cdrf2010.pdf (accessed 28/04/11)
Gill, T. (2007) Making Things Worse: How „caste blindness‟ in Indian post-tsunami disaster recovery has exacerbated vulnerability
and exclusion, Dalit Network Netherlands
Government of Orissa (2011) Report on the Activities of Revenue and Disaster Management Department for the year 2010-2011
Gupta, P. (2009) Ethnicity, Caste and Community in a disaster prone area of Orissa, working paper 231, The institution for
economic change, Bangalore.
Holling, C.S. (1973) Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, pp.1-23
Holling, C. S. (2004) Complex Regions Complex Worlds Ecology and Society 9.1, pp.11-21
Homer-Dixon, T (2009) Our Panarchic Future, World Watch Magazine, 22.2, accessed at http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6008
Jiloha, RC (2010) Deprivation, Discrimination, Human Rights Violation and Mental Health of the Deprived, Indian Journal of
Psychiatry, 52.3, pp.207-212
Jodhka, S. S. (2010) Engaging with Caste: Academic Discourses, Identity Politics and State Policy, Working Paper Series, 2.2m,
IIDS/UNICEF
Kapoor, D. (2007) Gendered-Caste Discrimination, Human Rights Education, and the Enforcement of the Prevention of Atrocities Act
in India, The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53.3, pp.273-286
Kashyap, A., Finberg Fellow, A. R. & B. D., (2008) Being Neutral is Our Biggest Crime, Human Rights Watch, New York
Kethineni, S. & Humiston, G.D. (2010) Dalits: the oppressed people of India: How are their social, economic and human rights
addressed? War crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity 4, pp.99-140

12. References
Kyoto University/SEEDS (2010) India City Profile: Climate and Disaster Resilience: Consultation Report 2010, SEEDS, Available
online: http://www.preventionweb.net/files/15263_15263cityprofileindia1.pdf (accessed 17/02/11)
Lakshmi, A., (2010) Building Local Capacities for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction: An Oxfam-BEDROC Study, Tamil Nadu,
Available online: http://bedroc.in/report.pdf (Accessed 17/02/11)
NCDHR (2010) National consultation: Exclusion of Dalits- disaster risk reduction interventions. June 2010.
Ray-Bennett, N.S. (2009) The influence of caste, class and gender in surviving multiple disasters: a case study from Orissa, India.
Environmental hazards, human and policy dimensions, 8, pp.5-22
Resilience Alliance Panarchy Page: www.resalliance.org/index.php/panarchy
Rew, A. & Rew, M. (2003) Development models „out-of-place‟: Social research on methods to improve livelihoods in eastern India,
Community Development Journal, 38.3, pp.213-224
Stockholm Resilience Centre (2007) Buzz Holling: Father of the Resilience Theory, accessed from
http://www.stockholmresilience.org/seminarandevents/seminarandeventvideos/buzzhollingfatheroftheresiliencetheory.5.aeea46911a
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Pokhrel, ISET, ISET-Nepal, Kathmandu
Warrier, S. (2010) Caste inclusion in census will be a disaster, Available online:
http://news.rediff.com/interview/2010/jun/29/interview-caste-inclusion-in-census-will-be-a-disaster.htm (accessed 04/05/11)
Xuan, Z. & Velasquez, J. (eds.) (2010) Protecting Development Gains: Reducing Disaster Vulnerability and Building Resilience in
Asia and the Pacific: The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, 2010, UNESCAP/UNISDR, Thailand
No given author (2008) Global Assessment Of Risk 2009: Asia Country & State Case Study Report December 2008, accessed from
http://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/background-papers/documents/Chap3/Asia-overview/Revi-Asia-Case-Study-
Report.pdf

13. Thank you