South Africa in an Age of Disasters: Managing risk and building competence (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781991274076)

Humanity is facing a growing number of epidemics, natural disasters and armed conflicts. These overlapping and often concurrent crises are sometimes referred to as a 'polycrisis'. Key features of the current polycrisis include so-called 'natural' phenomena, such as floods, droughts, fires and earthquakes. Other features - such as structural inequality, social and political polarisation, inter- and intra-state conflicts, and poorly regulated rapid technological changes - are generated by human agency. The impacts of these crises are felt across all areas of human endeavour. This volume explores the diverse and multiple fronts on which South Africa has to prepare for and adjust to this age of disasters. The investigation takes on added urgency given the fact that the African continent is less resilient to heat waves, flooding, droughts, wildfires, epidemics and wars than any other continent. Different chapters illustrate the varied forms that disaster preparedness can take, from tackling earthquakes, floods, wars and epidemics to addressing seemingly mundane but critical issues such as shortages of potable water. The authors reflect on core issues across this range in an endeavour to understand how humans encounter and overcome the impacts of epoch-making disasters. The volume delves into a transdisciplinary understanding of the current age of disasters, including its implications for contemporary capabilities of prediction, prevention and mitigation, and for the management of social relations. Varied case studies show how disasters can expose and often entrench cycles of social injustice. Conversely, some chapters cite examples of how disasters can act as catalysts for human development and profound social reform. This volume presents some of the fundamental issues that decision- makers and society at large need to take into account - within South Africa, across the rest of the African continent and further afield - in managing various disasters and, more generally, the polycrisis.