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Coping with chronic and extreme risks in contemporary Athens: confrontation or resilience?
Author(s) -
Sapountzaki Kalliopi,
Chalkias Christos
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
sustainable development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.115
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1099-1719
pISSN - 0968-0802
DOI - 10.1002/sd.251
Subject(s) - vulnerability (computing) , coping (psychology) , psychological resilience , social capital , risk management , social vulnerability , business , development economics , economics , sociology , psychology , social psychology , computer security , finance , social science , computer science , psychiatry
Abstract The present work attempts to address the main aspects of chronic and extreme risks in contemporary Athens. It focuses on two cases of acute chronic risk bedevilling the capital region, namely road accidents and noise pollution, and one case of extreme risk, namely seismic disasters. In all cases social vulnerability, seen as the attribute of social and economic entities that can serve to increase damage from given danger, is a basic determinant of risk level. This social vulnerability might be defined in terms of three constituent elements: exposure to, resistance against and resilience to danger impacts. The whole analysis seeks the generating causes of the relevant high risk levels; their distribution across the geographical and social space of the capital region; their impacts on citizens' lifestyle and awareness of unsustainability; the public policy actions to abate or mitigate them and the individuals' adaptive reactions or efforts to escape risks and finally the repercussions of individualized and governmental responses on future risk and vulnerability levels. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.