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This conversation presents the reflections from six international disaster scholars on how disaster capitalism manifested in very different ways in different countries, including Japan, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, India and South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

This paper is based on the conversations that took place on Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast livestream on the September 15, 2020.

The prominent themes in this conversation include profiteering, oppression and the politics of disasters.

The conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions around disaster capitalism and disaster risk creation.

This paper is a critique of Western modernity and the problems and promises of postmodernism in (re)liberating disaster studies. It criticizes metanarratives and grand theories of Western discourses to advance postmodern discourses in disaster studies.

This paper outlines a conceptual domain through which approaches of postmodernism can be employed to (re)liberate disaster studies.

Metanarratives and grand theories frame the scope and focus of disaster studies. But the increasing number and the aggravated impacts of disasters and environmental challenges in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are proofs that our current “frames” do not capture the complexities of disasters. Postmodernism, in its diversity and various meanings, offers critical and complementary perspectives and approaches to capture the previously neglected dimensions of disasters.

Postmodernism offers ways forward to (re)liberate disaster studies through ontological pluralism, epistemological diversity and hybridity of knowledge.

The agenda of postmodernism in disaster studies is proposed in terms of the focus of inquiry, ontological and epistemological positionalities, research paradigm, methodologies and societal goals.

This paper will challenge normative disaster studies and practice by arguing that thriving communities require the pursuit of imperfection and solidarity. The authors use Lewis Carroll’s Looking-Glass World as a lens to critique both how disasters are understood, and how disaster researchers and practitioners operate, within a climate-change affected world where cultural, political and historical constructs are constantly shifting.

The paper will undertake an analysis of both disasters and disaster studies, using this unique (and satirical) critical lens, looking at the unfolding of systemic mistakes, oppressions and mal-development that are revealed in contemporary disasters, that were once the critiques of Lewis Carroll’s Victorian-era England. It shows how disaster “resilience-building” can actually be a mechanism for continuing the status quo, and how persistent colonizing institutions and systems can be in reproducing themselves.

The authors argue the liberation of disaster studies as a process of challenging the doctrines and paradigms that have been created and given meaning by those in power – particularly white, Western/Northern/Eurocentric, male power. They suggest how researchers and practitioners might view disasters – and their own praxis – Through the Looking Glass in an effort to better understand the power, domination and violence of the status quo, but also as a means of creating a vision for something better, arguing that liberation is possible through community-led action grounded in love, solidarity, difference and interconnection.

The paper uses a novel conceptual lens as a way to challenge researchers and practitioners to avoid the utopic trap that wishes to achieve homogenized perfection and instead find an “imperfect” and complex adaptation that moves toward justice. Considering this idea through satire and literary criticism will lend support to empirical research that makes a similar case using data.

At the global level, disaster risk finance (DRF) is playing an increasingly prominent role in the international agendas for climate change adaptation. However, before implementing such agendas, it is essential to understand the needs and limitations of DRF in the subnational context where they need to impact. This research aims to gain insights into the perspectives of community and governmental actors in Colombia regarding DRF. Its goal is to promote the specific design of collaborative educational and technical assistance processes that consider their interests in the subject and the cultural diversity of the territories.

To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the findings were organized to highlight key aspects that help to understand DRF perspectives in the Colombian context.

It was found that the most significant limitations of implementing DRF include a lack of knowledge on the topic, corruption that encourages a reactive approach and the absence of economic resources. Concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of climate risk insurance becoming a profit-driven enterprise and the potential development of dependency behaviors within community groups, leading to maladaptation and moral hazard. Similarly, the implementation of DRF through foreign funds has raised concerns about the loss of territorial sovereignty and autonomy.

This is one of the first studies that carry out this kind of research and contributes to the formulation of inclusive public policies for DRF in different contexts worldwide.

This study aims to track and integrate past research concerning how tourism might improve natural disaster management, detect thematic research areas and develop an agenda for future research.

Using a systematic literature review methodology, this research synthesises academic papers indexed in the Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost (Hospitality & Tourism Complete) databases. A total of 34 articles published in peer-reviewed English journals were systematically selected for review and analysed using a thematic approach.

This review highlights a growing interest in the potential and value of tourism for disaster management. Eight key themes emerged in the review, including education and information communication about disasters; tourism facilities for disaster preparation; tourism resources in emergency conditions; livelihoods and economic recovery; disaster-related tourism attractions for recovery; destination re-branding and re-framing; community reinvigoration in tourism-driven disaster recovery; and special-interest tourism for recovery. A natural disaster management schematic empowered by tourism highlights tourism industry opportunities to positively impact the entire disaster management process.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work offers the first systematic review of the research on how tourism might support multiple stages of natural disaster management. This study thus complements and enriches extant literature reviews on the nexus between tourism and disaster management. The framework presents timely guidelines for planners, developers and other key stakeholders to leverage tourism initiatives to improve disaster management outcomes.

本研究旨在追溯和整合以往研究中关于旅游业如何提升自然灾害管理的实践和发现, 明确主要研究领域并提出未来研究议程。

通过系统文献综述方法, 本研究综合了Scopus, Web of Science和EBSCOhost（Hospitality & Tourism Complete）数据库中索引的学术论文。共有34篇发表在同行评审的英文期刊上的文章被系统地筛选出来, 随后使用主题分析方法进行分析。

文献综述发现, 学者和行业实践者对旅游业在灾害管理方面的潜力和价值越来越感兴趣。综述分析发现了八个关键领域：灾害的教育和信息交流; 旅游设施用于备灾; 旅游资源用于紧急情况; 生计和经济复苏; 灾难相关的旅游吸引物; 灾难地品牌重塑和重构; 旅游业驱动的社区灾后重振; 灾后重建中的特殊兴趣旅游。本文设计了由旅游业赋权的自然灾害管理示意图, 突出了旅游业对整个灾害管理进程产生的积极影响和潜在机会。

本文首次系统地回顾了旅游业如何支持多个自然灾害管理阶段的相关研究。此项研究补充和丰富了关于旅游业与灾害管理之间关系的现有文献综述。该框架为规划者、开发商和其他主要利益相关者在利用旅游举措来改善灾害管理方面提供了及时的指导方针。

Este estudio identifica e integra las investigaciones anteriores sobre cómo el turismo podría mejorar la gestión de desastres naturales, detecta áreas temáticas de investigación y elabora una agenda para la investigación futura.

Usando una metodología de revisión sistemática de la literatura, esta investigación sintetiza artículos académicos indexados en las bases de datos Scopus, Web of Science y EBSCOhost (Hospitality & Tourism Complete). Se seleccionaron sistemáticamente un total de 34 artículos publicados en revistas inglesas con revisión por pares para su revisión y análisis mediante un enfoque temático.

Esta revisión pone de relieve el creciente interés por el potencial y el valor del turismo en la gestión de desastres. En la revisión surgieron ocho temas clave: la educación y la comunicación de información sobre desastres; instalaciones turísticas para la preparación ante desastres; recursos turísticos en condiciones de emergencia; medios de subsistencia y recuperación económica; atracciones turísticas relacionadas con los desastres para la recuperación; cambio de marca y replanteamiento del destino; revitalización de la comunidad en la recuperación de desastres impulsada por el turismo; y el turismo de interés especial para la recuperación. Un esquema de gestión de desastres naturales potenciado por el turismo pone de relieve las oportunidades de la industria turística para influir positivamente en todo el proceso de gestión de desastres.

Este trabajo ofrece la primera revisión sistemática de la investigación sobre cómo el turismo podría apoyar las múltiples etapas de la gestión de desastres naturales. Este estudio complementa y enriquece la bibliografía existente sobre el nexo entre el turismo y la gestión de desastres. El marco presenta directrices oportunas para que los planificadores, los promotores y otras partes interesadas clave aprovechen las iniciativas turísticas para mejorar los resultados de la gestión de desastres.

This viewpoint engages with Jem Bendell’s deep adaptation framework which was developed as a response to the threat of collapse. Proponents of deep adaptation argue that societal collapse is either likely, inevitable or already underway. The deep adaptation framework is employed as a tool to contemplate the necessary adaptation of tourism development and planning in a context of polycrisis leading to collapse.

This is a conceptual viewpoint article that is built on deductive analysis of recent events, reports and scientific findings. It employs the deep adaptation framework to analyse possible alternative tourism futures in the face of the threat of collapse.

Bendell’s framework included four aspects of response to the recognition of the threat of collapse: resilience, relinquishment, restoration and reconciliation. In this work, the deep adaptation framework is employed to analyse what a deep adaptation approach to tourism might offer for efforts in securing optimal social and ecological outcomes. Findings highlight damaging activities that we should relinquish, more resilient approaches that communities could encourage and restorative practices such as rewilding and pluriversal economies as protective measures. This work recommends a precautionary approach to transform tourism education, research and practice in order to secure better tourism futures.

This work is novel in engaging with the threat of future collapse and in using the deep adaptation framework to consider alternative tourism futures.

Reality breakdowns generate reflexivity and awareness of the constructed nature of social reality. These pivotal moments can motivate institutional inhabitants to either modify their social worlds or reaffirm the status quo. Thus, reality breakdowns are the initial points at which actors can conceive of new possibilities for institutional arrangements and initiate change processes to realize them. Studying reality breakdowns enables scholars to understand not just how institutional change occurs, but also why it does or does not do so. In this paper, we investigate how institutional inhabitants responded to a reality breakdown that occurred during our ethnography of collegial governance in a large North American university that was undergoing a strategic change initiative. Our findings suggest that there is a consequential process following reality breakdowns whereby institutional inhabitants construct the severity of these events. In our context, institutional inhabitants first attempted to restore order to their social world by reaffirming the status quo; when their efforts failed, they began to formulate alternative possibilities. Simultaneously, they engaged in a distributed sensemaking process whereby they diminished and reoriented necessary changes, ultimately inhibiting the formulation of these new possibilities. Our findings confirm reality breakdowns and institutional awareness as potential drivers of institutional change and complicate our understanding of antecedent microprocesses that may forestall the initiation of change efforts.