In remembrance : Post-disaster rituals and symbols

This paper examines forms of post-disaster rituals and symbols in the United Kingdom, both formal and informal, and highlights the implications for those planning, preparing for delivering services and support. The main focus is on disasters involving sudden, unexpected socio-technical events on a much smaller scale than the sorts of natural disastrous events more typical in, say, Australia and the United States. However, an interesting feature of pos-disaster rituals and symbols is the similarity in form and function, and therefore much of the analysis here is also be applicable to other post-disaster scenarios. The article concludes that in all the ways discussed informal and official commemorative events are more than just ocassions for remenbering those killed or injured and ways of expressing personal and collective grief. It it suggested here that researchers and practitioners may learn more about the longer term psycho-social and political significance of some disasters by examining the issues and expressions surrounding disaster commemoration after five, ten or even twenty years. Organisers need to take account of the range of social, religious and political issues surrounding disaster commemorate itself which are reflected in decisions about where, when and how it takes place and who has the authority to make such decisions. In the longer term this is one justification for a community based involving relatives and survivors in planning and designing such events wherever possible

Disaster related social behaviour : Summary of 50 years of research findings

This paper summarizes much although not all of what is known about overall disaster related social behavior. Drawing from a base of 50 years of social science research involving thousands of studies, we note the typical patterns of behavior at the individual, organizational, community and mass media level. The last is a surrogate for reactions at the societal level. To avoid interminable and specific documentation, readers are given a large bibliography that lists the major research literature examined for the purpose of this paper. Most disasters impact a community. However, there are non-community types of disasters, e.g., a plane crash in an isolated rural area. This affects behavioral responses (e.g., crash survivors do not receive the social support that emerges in a community when residents have undergone a common disaster experience). The 20 general observations below around which we organize our comments, are mostly about community disasters

Atención primaria de la salud mental para población expuesta a desastres / Primary mental health care for populations exposed to disasters

El tema de la salud mental y los desastres es una realidad para países como el Ecuador. El país está situado en una zona de alto riesgo para catástrofes y la salud mental en los desastres ha sido definida una prioridad dentro de las acciones en este campo. El enfoque de los desastres naturales en países en desarrollo, la pobreza y sus graves consecuencias, es lo que eleva las consecuencias psicosociales de los desatres. El documento nos permite conocer y estudiar la conducta humana en condiciones de desastres, la capacidad de enfrentamiento y de recuperación

Anti - social behaviour reconsidered

Many scientific investigators have concluded that the fear of disorderly or criminal behaviour in emergencies is highly exaggerated. It is strongly believed that the inmediate response in emergencies is casually positive, if somewhat confused, but rarely anti-social. In light of the above, the reported behaviour in several recent events has seemed remarkable and worthy of atttention. Such reports, at the very least, seem to cast doubt on the universality of claims by researchers that emegency response behaviour is generally positive (AU)

Los instrumentos económicos aplicados al medio ambiente

Se incluyen los siguientes documentos: 1. El caso de México, 2. Integración de la política en medio ambiente y de la política económica, 3. Las experiencias de la OCDE con el principio de "El que contamina paga", 4. Perspectivas del Banco Mundial sobre instrumentos económicos, 5. Instrumentos económicos para ejecutar políticas ambientales gubernamentales, 6. Equilibrio entre comando/control e instrumentos económicos. Políticas en méxico, 7. Modelización económico - ambiental en el marco europeo, 8. Instrumentos económicos aplicados al medio ambiente. Influencia sobre motivaciones y comportamientos sel sector social, 9. Auditorias y control de la información