Risk, Geography, and East Asia



▪ Risk, Geography, and East Asia (current) / Risiko, Geographie und Ostasien (laufend)

In the first instance physical geography and its focus on the natural world, but more central to this research programme, in the field of human geography, the theme of risk has been taken up in part out of practical and normative applications: assessing and managing natural hazards or dealing with risks in order to achieve sustainability in the human-environment interaction. Human geography has entered into its own reception of the risk society and the distinction between danger and risk by Luhmann as applied to natural hazards. The difference between natural dangers and natural risks highlights the division in the approaches of physical and human geography to natural hazards. For physical geography the difference between a natural event and a natural hazard depends on whether the region is populated or not. From a more social scientific perspective on geography, natural hazards become natural risks when they are “selected” and knowledge is available to guide decisions to deal with risks. What brings the new approach to natural risks in geography closer to the sociological understanding in the sense of Beck (1986, 2007), is the recognition of “natural hazards” as “man-made hazards”. In this sense, the human damage wrought by an earthquake is conceptually equivalent to the destruction of a nuclear power accident, a terrorist or enemy attack. The link to risk in the sense of economic and social risks is also present, for example in the scholarly debates in the US about the failure of public institutions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, or the concern of human geographers with the impact of demographic changes, which are particularly rapid in Japan and Korea, as well as in most other societies of East Asia. The keyword sustainability (ecological, economical, social) is also tied to geographic understandings of risk, for example in relation to the human consequences of unregulated natural risks (in terms of

When focussing on East Asia, we assume first, that “risk” is embedded here in a specific physical and socio-cultural environment both of which may contribute to a specific risk perception. There is the popular (not scientifically verified) notion of a specific East Asian “risk culture” based on group oriented societies in the umbrella of which the individual may not so much feel depend on risk and, just because of this, may be inclined to behave even more risky.

Second, we notice an impressive economic development (and rapid demographic change) in nearly all East Asian countries. Here the “man-made” dimensions of natural hazards is a theme of particular relevance to due to the frequent occurrence of natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding), the often dire consequences of extremely rapid economic development and urbanisation, and a general assumption that individuals enter potentially hazardous regions of their own free will, for example in order to take advantage of economic opportunities.

However, successful hazard management does not only depend on the degree of economic strength of a country but also on its socio-cultural environment. Against this background there are challenging research fields for human geography in certain countries or regions of East Asia. Spatially different development paths and modernities associated with classical economic stages theory and/or culture-theoretical approaches such as “multiple modernities” (Eisenstadt 2000) may lead to risks characterized by striking differences of modernization speeds both between and inside the countries of East Asia - findings that can be stimulating for doing research on risk perceptions and risk management according to different geographical scales.

Publications/Papers / Publikationen/Vorträge:

- Tokyo vor dem nächsten Erdbeben: Ballungsrisiken und Stadtplanung im Zeichen des Katastrophenschutzes. In: Geographische Rundschau 52, Heft 7/8, 2000, S. 54-61 (Winfried Flüchter).

- Tokyo Before the Next Earthquake. Agglomeration-related Risks, Town Planning and Disaster Prevention. In: Town Planning Review Vol. 74, Number 2, 2003, pp. 213-238 (Winfried Flüchter).

- Georisikoraum Japan: Physiogene Verwundbarkeit und präventiver Katastrophenschutz (Geo-risk Space Japan - Physiogenetic Vulnerability and Disaster Prevention). In: Glaser, Rüdiger und Klaus Kremb (Hrsg.): Planet Erde: Asien. Darmstadt 2007: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, S. 239-251 (Winfried Flüchter).

- Das Erdbeben in Japan 2011 und die Optionen einer Risikogesellschaft. In: Geographische Rundschau Jg. 63, 2011, Heft 12, S. 52-59.

- Earthquake – Tsunami – Nuclear Accident. Geo-Risk-Space and Risk Society Japan in Light of the Triple Disaster 2011. In: Unikate Heft 40, 2011, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Gesellschaftswissenschaften, S. 26-36. 

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