The Potential of Friendship: A Case for Social Resilience and New Care Optics

In this article, we call for greater recognition of friendship as a basic social relation that should play a pivotal role in re-imagining social resilience if it is to be future-proof in the face of social upheaval, such as the current pandemic. Drawing on existing research and early scoping of emergent information about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we suggest that friendship is an important component of heterogenic social realities. The specific focus of our discussion is twofold. Firstly, attention is paid to the narrow lens of social policy that privileges particular familial set-ups and living arrangements, and in doing so marginalises groups which are already disenfranchised; secondly, we consider the dangers of nationalism and Eurocentrism as they relate to these issues. We suggest that thinking in terms of friendship can open up new avenues of academic and political imagination, offering strategies with greater potential for building socially resilient communities.

Resilience and Sustainability Development

Informed action by the leaders of the future is critical for creating resilient communities. Preparing these future leaders through formal and informal education, research, and environmental/climate change programs that interweave local knowledge with the most current global science positions them to becomes the catalysts that propel community leaders to engage a wider range of possible futures. This chapter integrates findings from a SeaTrust Institute research project with the sustainable development goals in an analysis supporting dynamic and reconfigurable combinations of agents that promote the attributes of elasticity, future orientation, and motivation to address the high stakes choices for resilience to climate and environmental/social change. Author objectives in this chapter are to illustrate the optimum roles of youth in the process and what preparations and conditions are needed to instill and support youth in their ability to flip a process at the point of catastrophe to restore equilibrium and promote resilience.

Science Communication for Climate Change Disaster Risk Management and Environmental Education in Africa

This chapter describes and explains the role of science communication to advance environmental education on climate change with a special reference on Africa being one of the regions suffering from the effects of climate-induced disasters and risks in the increased anthropogenic effects of modern development. It is argued that scientists are poor communicators on what they do, and hence, are often misunderstood by the media and society. This then calls for attention to be paid with regards to science communication, which has to be packaged in ways that make it easier for the generality of citizens to interpret and understand. Efforts in this regard are made possible through environmental education, which has proved to be useful in the discourse of disaster risk management in different parts of the world. The buttressing methodological philosophy to this chapter is applied systems approach. Critical areas of reference are health and diseases, resilient communities, coastal adaptation, and farming practices and technologies.

Construction sustainability of container-modular-housing in coastal regions towards resilient community

PurposeThis paper addresses housing problems of coastal areas in Bangladesh and investigates container-modular-housing (CMH) as a potential sustainable solution that establishes a resilient community.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data highlight the underlying challenges of coastal-housing developed by monitoring the day-to-day operations of the community and conducting interviews with community members. Secondary data came from existing literature on coastal-housing rules and regulations, CMH and similar ideas. The study used a hypothetical CMH cluster design, with three primary objectives in mind: future settlement re-arrangement, economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. To achieve the objectives, the research used a comparative examination of the current constructed form and CMH, as well as a computer-aided simulation approach.FindingsPrimary findings encompass issues of a given coastal area, including surrounding site studies, sustainability and resiliency demands due to broad exposure to the natural calamities. Driving toward a “CMH” based home design has the ability to create strategies for a resilient and sustainable community development while taking three primary objectives into account.Research limitations/implicationsA pilot project is needed to analyze the socio-cultural impact and overall construction feasibility.Practical implicationsThis research could be implemented to transform an informal construction system into a technical, resilient, sustainable architectural and engineering solution to build resilient communities.Originality/valueNumerous research projects have focused on the environmental sustainability of CMH. However, this study focuses on construction sustainability considering three major aspects which are yet to be addressed.

Peer Mentoring to Foster Resilient Age-Friendly Rural Communities in Maine

Maine has a growing number of age-friendly community initiatives (AFCIs); 116 communities are actively working to adapt the social, service, and built environments for aging and 71 have formally joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. During COVID, rural municipalities were faced with dynamic changes that limited older resident’s access to services and social engagement. To overcome these limitations, it is critical for emergent AFCIs to have tools and strategies to maintain and further enhance healthy environments and resilient communities. This study uses group interviews with 6 leaders of established AFCIs and 6 leaders of emergent AFCIs to explore how the Lifelong Fellows Program, a peer mentoring model that matches experienced leaders with newly formed initiatives, was able to spur development of new strategies to build community resilience. Prominent themes were (1) engaging new local and regional partners; (2) intergenerational volunteerism; (3) fun and flexibility; and (4) relationship-building.

Assessment of Perception on Disaster Proneness of Lembang Fault in District of Cisarua, West Java Indonesia

The Lembang Fault is a major fault located at the northern Bandung. This fault has a high disaster risk, including ground shaking, surface rupture, and possible landslides or liquefaction. This fault can cause earthquakes of 6.5-7 magnitude, making 8 million people in four Regencies and Cities around West Bandung Regency, Cimahi City, Bandung City and Bandung Regency exposed to major disaster risk. This research focuses on assessing the Perception of Disaster Proneness of the Lembang Fault in the District of Cisarua, West Java, Indonesia. This research was conducted using a case study and deductive-qualitative approach. In addition, this research was carried out by combining engineering and social research methodologies. The survey location point is determined based on hazard data (Peak Ground Acceleration data), vulnerability data (covering building density, slope, curvature, soil character, distance from faults, etc.) and population density data. This study indicates that the public’s perception of the disaster in the Lembang Fault is very subjective. How they act is based on experience or based on their beliefs. Therefore, an essential part of this research is assessing and measuring the community’s perception of the Lembang Fault towards disasters that may arise. The government must make serious efforts to convey that the disaster in the Lembang fault is much bigger and can happen at any time. Therefore, building resilient communities that genuinely understand the dangers of living in disaster-prone areas is essential.