Question

1. Why do individual and household level livelihoods matter when considering social vulnerability and capacity?

Answer 1

Ans.

Vulnerability has been defined as the degree to which a system, or part of it, may react adversely during the occurrence of a hazardous event. ... (2) Soft resilience : the ability of systems to absorb and recover from the impact of disruptive events without fundamental changes in function or structure.

Livelihood is defined as a set of activities essential to everyday life that are conducted over one's life span. Such activities could include securing water, food, fodder, medicine, shelter, clothing. An individual's livelihood involves the capacity to acquire aforementioned necessities in order to satisfy the basic needs of themselves and their household. The activities are usually carried out repeatedly and in a manner that is sustainable and providing of dignity.^[2] For instance, a fisherman's livelihood depends on the availability and accessibility of fish.

The concept of Sustainable Livelihood (SL)is an attempt to go beyond the conventional definitions and approaches to poverty eradication.

Social vulnerability refers to the characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recovery from the impact of a natural hazard (Wisner et al., 2004)." ... Reducing social vulnerability can decrease both human suffering and economic loss.

capacity influence vulnerability-

Physical, economic, social and political factors determine people's level of vulnerability and the extent of their capacity to resist, cope with and recover from hazards. ... In richer countries, people usually have a greater capacity to resist the impact of a hazard.

In its broadest sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. These impacts are due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural values.

Because it is most apparent when calamity occurs, many studies of social vulnerability are found in risk management literature.

The concept of social vulnerability emerged most recently within the discourse on natural hazards and disasters. To date no one definition has been agreed upon. Similarly, multiple theories of social vulnerability exist.^[6] Most work conducted so far focuses on empirical observation and conceptual models. Thus, current social vulnerability research is a middle range theory and represents an attempt to understand the social conditions that transform a natural hazard (e.g. flood, earthquake, mass movements etc.) into a social disaster. The concept emphasizes two central themes:

1. Both the causes and the phenomenon of disasters are defined by social processes and structures. Thus it is not only a geo- or biophysical hazard, but rather the social context that is taken into account to understand “natural” disasters (Hewitt 1983).
2. Although different groups of a society may share a similar exposure to a natural hazard, the hazard has varying consequences for these groups, since they have diverging capacities and abilities to handle the impact of a hazard.