University of Groningen
Disaster Governance
Bakema, Melanie
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Publication date:
2019
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Citation for published version (APA):
Bakema, M. (2019). Disaster Governance: Analyzing inconvenient realities and chances for resilience and
sustainability. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
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Propositions belonging to the PhD thesis
Disaster Governance:
Analyzing inconvenient realities and
chances for resilience and sustainability
Melanie M. Bakema
1. The primary condition for disaster governance is heterogeneity: flexible and time-, place- and actor-specific. Only when this lens is applied, short-term post-disaster solutions will not hinder but enable longer-term resilience and sustainability aspirations. (This thesis) 2. Disaster governance is often a game played with many players with different interests.
For an adequate understanding and governance of a disaster, all public, private and civil society actors need to be part of the game. (This thesis)
3. When the concept of resilience implies learning, adaptation and transformation, resilience and sustainability are complementary. Yet, when resilience turns into rigidity and
inflexibility, it limits sustainability. (This thesis)
4. Institutionalizing lessons and experiences is required for enabling post-disaster societal learning. However, this also implies ‘tipping sacred cows’: conceding the interests in the socio-institutional status-quo. (This thesis)
5. Societies confronted year in year out with nature-induced disasters have a high risk awareness and a high risk acceptance. Societies hit by a human-induced disaster once in a few decades have a low risk awareness and low risk acceptance. Both mixes of ingredients hinder the trigger for transitions. The question remains who should capitalize the momentum to trigger transitions towards enhanced resilience and sustainability, and how? (This thesis)
6. As long as disasters are studied from either a ‘hard sciences’ or a ‘soft sciences’ perspective, a truly integral social-ecological understanding of disasters and their governance remains an utopia. (This thesis)
7. In-depth international case-study research is highly valuable for enriching academia, in general, and social-ecological systems and disaster research, in particular. (This thesis) 8. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”.
(Nelson Mandela)
9. “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. (Winston Churchill)
10. “It is necessary to understand that democratic rules are totally, completely and absolutely indispensable, but they are not enough. We must pay attention to what our people think, how do they experience democracy, and what are the fair demands that they claim from it.” (Michelle Bachelet)
11. “This well-known target, which supposedly represents the ‘safe’ limit of climate change, has always been a highly political choice that has to do more with minimizing economic disruption than with protecting the greatest number of people”. (Naomi Klein)
