Measuring vulnerability: By Whom and for Whose Benefit? The Significance of Participation

Abstract

Approaches to measuring vulnerability to natural and man-made hazards reflect different worldviews rooted in diverse and often contradictory epistemologies. Indeed, they reflect very different interpretations of disasters and thus underpin different sets of public policies and disaster risk reduction practices. This chapter provides an overview of the two main approaches in terms of the paradigms structuring the study of disasters, and focuses on the so-called participatory approaches that have gradually emerged to fill the gaps left by these dominant approaches. This typology draws on the work of Robert Chambers in the context of poverty assessment, including economic reductionism, anthropological particularism, and participatory pluralism. The chapter elaborates on the benefits and advantages of participatory approaches by detailing, through the use of case studies, the importance of process and the choice of tools. It concludes with a critical reflection on all these approaches and the need to measure vulnerability.