Queer vulnerability and disaster situations
The appropriateness of branding certain disaster events as a natural disaster continues to be academically debated, given that few disasters are solely the result of uncontrollable forces of nature, and are instead anthropogenic in their creation, or exacerbated by the relationship humans have with...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AIMS Press
2024-03-01
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| Series: | AIMS Geosciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/geosci.2024011?viewType=HTML |
| _version_ | 1797202181424676864 |
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| author | Seth Atkin Kieran Higgins Claire Kilpatrick Stephan Dahl |
| author_facet | Seth Atkin Kieran Higgins Claire Kilpatrick Stephan Dahl |
| author_sort | Seth Atkin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The appropriateness of branding certain disaster events as a natural disaster continues to be academically debated, given that few disasters are solely the result of uncontrollable forces of nature, and are instead anthropogenic in their creation, or exacerbated by the relationship humans have with actual and potential hazards. Therefore, this socially constructed nature of disasters also makes groups that are marginalized within society, such as queer people, more vulnerable to these disasters. Utilizing a Bourdieusian framework, the field of disaster preparedness, management, and recovery is examined for queer vulnerability, which is deconstructed here as a product of global and local cultures, in their distribution of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital away from queer people. The concepts of habitus and subsidiary concepts of ethos and doxa are deployed to understand the ingrained ways of doing and being that perpetuate discrimination against queer individuals through said inequitable distributions of capital. It is argued that the field is privileged for heteronormative lives, thus leading to heteronormative assumptions and actions that further marginalize queer experiences before, during, and after disasters during disasters. In light of this, we call for a more social justice informed approach to disaster risk reduction and relief, in which heteronormativity is consciously decentered to ensure all groups are kept safe from disasters, which can arguably never be natural. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:59:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-77ab153787a64642ab2963cdf578840b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2471-2132 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T07:59:21Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | AIMS Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | AIMS Geosciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-77ab153787a64642ab2963cdf578840b2024-04-18T01:24:39ZengAIMS PressAIMS Geosciences2471-21322024-03-0110119620710.3934/geosci.2024011Queer vulnerability and disaster situationsSeth Atkin 0Kieran Higgins1Claire Kilpatrick2Stephan Dahl31. Queers for Climate Justice, Manchester, United Kingdom2. Gibson Institute for Land, Food & Environment, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland3. Queen's Business School, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland4. The Quinta Project, São Salvador de Aramenha, PortugalThe appropriateness of branding certain disaster events as a natural disaster continues to be academically debated, given that few disasters are solely the result of uncontrollable forces of nature, and are instead anthropogenic in their creation, or exacerbated by the relationship humans have with actual and potential hazards. Therefore, this socially constructed nature of disasters also makes groups that are marginalized within society, such as queer people, more vulnerable to these disasters. Utilizing a Bourdieusian framework, the field of disaster preparedness, management, and recovery is examined for queer vulnerability, which is deconstructed here as a product of global and local cultures, in their distribution of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital away from queer people. The concepts of habitus and subsidiary concepts of ethos and doxa are deployed to understand the ingrained ways of doing and being that perpetuate discrimination against queer individuals through said inequitable distributions of capital. It is argued that the field is privileged for heteronormative lives, thus leading to heteronormative assumptions and actions that further marginalize queer experiences before, during, and after disasters during disasters. In light of this, we call for a more social justice informed approach to disaster risk reduction and relief, in which heteronormativity is consciously decentered to ensure all groups are kept safe from disasters, which can arguably never be natural.https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/geosci.2024011?viewType=HTMLnatural disasterslgbt+queer vulnerabilitybourdieudisaster risk reduction |
| spellingShingle | Seth Atkin Kieran Higgins Claire Kilpatrick Stephan Dahl Queer vulnerability and disaster situations AIMS Geosciences natural disasters lgbt+ queer vulnerability bourdieu disaster risk reduction |
| title | Queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| title_full | Queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| title_fullStr | Queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| title_short | Queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| title_sort | queer vulnerability and disaster situations |
| topic | natural disasters lgbt+ queer vulnerability bourdieu disaster risk reduction |
| url | https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/geosci.2024011?viewType=HTML |
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