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This dissertation offers an ethnographic account of mental health governance, psychosocial interventions, and forms of shared affliction in Nepal before and after the 2015 earthquakes. By thinking with theories of event and crisis through the lens of critical phenomenology, I ask the following questions: How can ethnography approach emergent phenomena? How does an affliction become knowable through a particular concept and made into an object of intervention? How is evidence for therapeutic efficacy made visible in the midst of a psychosocial encounter? What are the local/global historical, political, and socioeconomic forces that have brought about the emergence of mental health governance in Nepal? Based on 24 months of field research, I conducted participant observation, interviews, focus groups, household surveys, and followed psychosocial counselors in the field to respond to these questions. In the first part of the dissertation I outline the history of mental health governance in Nepal in relation to the emergence of the Global Mental Health movement. In the second part I examine cases of adolescent "mass hysteria" as they were conceptualized as "conversion disorder," "hysteria," "chhopne," and "bhut/pret," "pissach laagne." In the third and final part I track the humanitarian mental health response in the aftermath of the disaster and its ramifications. In order to address the ethical question of the possibilities and impossibilities of field research under situations of emergency, I discuss how new forms of ethnographic engagement were needed to respond to the unfolding disaster. As a conclusion, I conceptualize what I call the "work of disaster" as a way to frame what was generated through the event of disaster and what was destroyed, what was accomplished through various narratives of crisis and what was foreclosed, the processes by which affliction was made visible or rendered invisible, and the historical contexts that created the possibility for these formations.

Collectively, ASEAN is a region with great potential of economic growth. It is also home to a large and young population. As the region continues to grow, rapid urbanisation is leading to the establishment of new cities and the creation of mega-urban regions. However, ASEAN remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters that can setback the economy and erode economic gains made over the years. Adverse climate change has also increased the severity and unpredictability of the impact of such disasters. ASEAN member states have to take steps collectively to implement disaster risk reduction strategies tailored to their national context. The theme of this year's ASEAN Strategic Policy Dialogue on Disaster Management (SPDDM) was "Building ASEAN's Resiliency to Disasters", which sought to spark discussion on how ASEAN can continue building on its achievements to enhance resilience of the region. In line with ASEAN's theme of "Partnership for Sustainability" under Thailand's Chairmanship this year, the conference looked at how partnerships contributed towards building ASEAN's resilience in times of disasters. The conference also deliberated on the ongoing efforts to realise the ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management, in particular realising the vision for ASEAN to become a global leader in disaster management by the year 2025. The inputs gathered from the speakers and participants would be referenced in the development of the next ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme 2021–2025. This report summarises the key points from the panel discussions and presentations. The High-Level Panel Discussion underlined the importance of having a longer term strategic outlook in terms of building partnerships for disaster management and addressing climate change concerns. The first Thematic Discussion on "ASEAN, Sustainable Development, and Disaster Impacts" called for increased engagement with local communities so that they can be empowered to look after themselves and be prepared for disasters as well as the effects of climate change. The second Thematic Discussion on "Adapting to Localisation as a 'New Norm' in Humanitarian Response" highlighted the urgent need to build up disaster management capacity at the sub-national level. Finally, in the Open Session participants raised a number of ideas focused around gaps, priorities and partnerships.

Stress tests highlight a system's weak spots. This second edition provides a stress testing of the United States by exploring in detail the background to the disasters of the War on Terror, Hurricane Katrina, the financial crisis, the Gulf oil spill and the COVID-19 epidemic. These major stresses—the country's longest war, its biggest natural disaster, its biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression, its biggest oil spill and its worst pandemic since the influenza pandemic of 1918—tell us much about structural flaws in the United States. This book explores each of these events in detail to locate the seed of the disasters, and highlights what we have learned and not learned from these stress tests. John Rennie Short is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA.

In 2009, 4 major bushfires destroyed vast areas of Gippsland in eastern Victoria including the areas around Delburn, Bunyip, Churchill and Wilsons Promontory. These are collectively known as the 2009 Gippsland bushfires. Research was conducted to investigate the psychosocial recovery of young adults in these areas. Twenty young adults participated in the study and, while these young adults are not an homogenous group, commonalities were identified across their stories. Asked what would have helped their recovery, the participants all said that acknowledgment of their personal and age-specific needs was the single most important factor that enabled or impeded recovery. This paper describes some of their stories. The paper looks at how participants viewed acknowledgment and the effects of its absence on their psychosocial recovery and how they felt unacknowledged in local recovery supports. The paper reports on the findings of this research and suggests an approach for management and longer-term recovery support that is inclusive of the specific needs of young adults.

When disaster events capture global attention users of Twitter form transient interest communities that disseminate information and other messages online. This paper examines content related to Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) as it hit the Philippines and triggered international humanitarian response and media attention. It reveals how Twitter conversations about disasters evolve over time, showing an issue attention cycle on a social media platform. The paper examines different functions of Twitter and the information hubs that drive and sustain conversation about the event. Content analysis shows that the majority of tweets contain information about the typhoon or its damage, and disaster relief activities. There are differences in types of content between the most retweeted messages and posts that are original tweets. Original tweets are more likely to come from ordinary users, who are more likely to tweet emotions, messages of support, and political content compared with official sources and key information hubs that include news organizations, aid organization, and celebrities. Original tweets reveal use of the site beyond information to relief coordination and response.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the resilience of the South African community in Auckland to a potential hazard event.


Design/methodology/approach
The research collected data from both primary and secondary sources. The research used parametric and non-parametric analytical procedures for quantitative data and a general inductive approach to qualitative data analysis and a three-step coding cycle for interviews. A content analytical process of theme formation was used to analyse secondary materials. The research discussed findings in line with related studies on community resilience.


Findings
The aggregate community resilience index was above average on the scale of 1–5. The highest and lowest contributions to the resilience of the South African community came from communication and information and physical capacities of the community. Although the highest contribution came from the communication domain, there is a need to sensitise the community on the importance of real-time information for resilience. Community ability to respond as a first responder and to access diverse sources was low because of a lack of interest in disaster risk reduction activities and membership of associations. Intervention in the economic domain and affordable housing is needed to assist low-income earners in coping with a potential disaster and enhance future resilience.


Research limitations/implications
The practical resilience of the community is limited to the time of this research. The state of resilience might change in longitudinal research due to changes in resources and ecosystem. The research did not consider institutional and natural domains because its focus was to predict resilience at the individual level.


Practical implications
At-risk societies could enhance their resilience through a periodic audit into its resources, identify indicators of low resilience and carry out interventions to address potential vulnerabilities. Besides the importance of resource in resilience, the research illuminates the need to address the question of who is resilient and resources distribution in the community. The issues are imperative in community resilience as they underpinned the personal ability to preparedness, response and recover from a disaster.


Originality/value
Although the research provides insight into the resilience of the South African community, it constitutes preliminary research towards a further understanding of the resilience of the South African community in Auckland.

Serial transmission - the passing on of information from one source to another - is a phenomenon of central interest in the study of informal communication in emergency settings. Microblogging services such as Twitter make it possible to study serial transmission on a large scale and to examine the factors that make retransmission of messages more or less likely. Here, we consider factors predicting serial transmission at the interface of formal and informal communication during disaster; specifically, we examine the retransmission by individuals of messages (tweets) issued by formal organizations on Twitter. Our central question is the following: How do message content, message style, and public attention to tweets relate to the behavioral activity of retransmitting (i.e. retweeting) a message in disaster? To answer this question, we collect all public tweets sent by a set of official government accounts during a 48-hour period of the Waldo Canyon wildfire. We manually code tweets for their thematic content and elements of message style. We then create predictive models to show how thematic content, message style, and changes in number of Followers affect retweeting behavior. From these predictive models, we identify the key elements that affect public retransmission of messages during the emergency phase of an unfolding disaster. Our findings suggest strategies for designing and disseminating messages through networked social media under periods of imminent threat. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.