I Kelman
Biographic Data
| ID | 41015 |
|---|---|
| NAME | I Kelman |
| GIVEN NAMES | I |
| FAMILY NAME | Kelman |
| SIGNATURE | KELMAN I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4191-6969 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 133 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 644 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 132 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Advancing the concept of community positive health through participatory research in marginalized communities in Kenya
There have long been global calls to strengthen community-led and -engaged approaches in public health, but most community health interventions are still driven by governments and other external actors to reduce narrow measures of disease burden. Despite theoretical advancements in salutogenesis and positive health, these concepts remain underapplied in understanding and supporting collective health and wellbeing at the community level. This empi…
Climate Change Responses in the Pacific
Pacific Islanders are being affected by climate change and are often advised from outside the Pacific to respond through justice and transformation. This paper aims to step back from such rhetoric in order to examine its implications. Through considering four types of ‘fatigue’, it asks whether or not transformation and justice approaches for climate change responses account for on‐the‐ground circumstances of Pacific Islands and Islanders. Possib…
The need for a systems approach to better understand the linkages between natural resources and human (im)mobility
To date, much of the climate change literature express alarmist and groundless narratives. This includes simple linkages between natural resource loss, forced migration and violent conflict mediated through climate change, or attribution of natural resource decline to climate change, that rather relates to mismanagement, governance, and politics. There is also a mobility-bias where natural resource impacts upon immobile or ‘trapped’ people often …
Not Your Climate Refugees”
Many reports of low-lying islands dealing with climate change impacts presume that forced migration is the expected and inevitable response, leading to the theorization of climate migration (sometimes termed ‘climigration’) for islanders. In reality, islanders tend to express a preference for staying in their homes and adapting, as demonstrated by Maldives. Through a longitudinal study involving on-site research in 2013, 2017, and 2023, we conduc…
Crisis Preparedness and Systemic Risk
This study explores how Norwegian leaders in rural municipalities attend to disaster risk governance and prepare for resilient response to threats from systemic, interconnected, and cascading hazards. Systemic risk management in the Norwegian municipalities will depend on the context and how critical organizational processes are managed by the municipal leaders. Following the COVID‐19 pandemic and an increased awareness of climate‐related threats…
Future-making beyond (im)mobility through tethered resilience
Data Management for Sustainable Development
Understanding and Addressing Disaster Risk
In Understanding and Addressing Disaster Risk, the authors explain how people modify the environment and exert power over each other in ways that make nature potentially harmful and put people in harm’s way. Opportunities and challenges faced by those engaging with disaster risk are explored. Across 11 chapters, the authors show that disasters are not natural, are not events, and do not happen quickly. Instead, they are the result of chronic soci…
Public health disinformation, conflict, and disease outbreaks
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the unpreparedness of global and public health systems to respond to large-scale health crises, while simultaneously revealing the entangled nature of disinformation and poor global and public health outcomes. This research challenges the common treatment of public health disinformation - deliberately false information - as an emergent and technical threat, and instead situates it as a more systemic and nuanced cha…
Working equids supporting women’s disaster risk management
Floodscapes for Inland Waterscapes
The objective of this article is to provide a photo essay of inland waterscapes in which a floodscape remains or is created with the aim of preventing disasters. The theory of a flood being different from a disaster is long established with many empirical examples, but neither visualisation nor how to visualise effectively across audiences is always evident. Images by the author accompanied by brief captions from the author's experience aim to fi…
Covid-19 impacts on emergency responder resilience in Bergen and London
This study qualitatively compares how 18 experienced emergency responders from the fire services in Bergen, Norway, and London, United Kingdom, maintained and adapted their organisation's work, routines, and leadership practices to maintain operational capacity, preparedness, and resilience during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic from 2020-23. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with nine experienced emergency r…
The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
Choosing or avoiding disaster
This article explores why the term ‘natural disaster’ is a misnomer. Based on long-standing research, it argues that disasters do not occur due to environmental hazards such as earthquakes and floods. Instead, disasters happen when human attitudes, values and behaviours force people into, or lead people to choose to be in, harm’s way, making them vulnerable. Choices creating and perpetuating vulnerabilities are the disaster and these choices are …
Is heat wave a predictor of diarrhoea in Dhaka, Bangladesh? A time-series analysis in a South Asian tropical monsoon climate
While numerous studies have assessed the association between temperature and diarrhoea in various locations, evidence of relationship between heat wave and diarrhoea is scarce. We defined elevated daily mean and maximum temperature over the 95 th and 99 th percentiles lasting for at least one day between March to October 1981–2010 as TAV95 and TAV99 and D95 and D99 heat wave, respectively. We investigated the association between heat wave and dai…
Heat Index
Heat index (HI) is a biometeorological indicator that combines temperature and relative humidity. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the Heat Index and daily counts of diarrhoea hospitalisation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data on daily diarrhoea hospitalisations and meteorological variables from 1981 to 2010 were collected. We categorised the Heat Index of >94.3 °F (>34.6 °C), >100.7 °F (>38.2 °C) and >105 °F (>40.6 °C) as high, v…
Evaluating the risk of conflict on recent Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Extra vigilance is needed following protests and riot-related conflict events in terms of Ebola virus transmission. These events are highly disruptive, in terms of access to transportation and healthcare and are often in urban areas with high population densities. Additional public health messaging around these types of conflict events, relating to the risks and clinical symptoms may be helpful in reducing transmission. Future work should aim to …
Tourism geographies and disaster risk
The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
Collective action by community groups
Community groups are taking initiatives to adapt to a changing climate. These organizations differ from businesses and governments by being non-profit, often informal, resource limited, and reliant on volunteer labor. How these organizations facilitate collective action is not well known, especially since they do not necessarily solve common pool resource governance, but rather improve common pool resources through collective action. In fact, at …
Governing digital health for infectious disease outbreaks
How can governing digital health for infectious disease outbreaks be enhanced? In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously represented both the potential and marked limitations of digital health practices for infectious disease outbreaks. During the pandemic's initial stages, states along with Big Data and Big Tech actors unleashed a scope of both established and experimental digital technologies for tracking infections, hospitalisatio…
Categorising potential non-disasters
Purpose This short paper builds on and critiques work presenting potential non-disasters: disasters that did not seem to happen despite a major hazard. Previous work does not differentiate among different types of potential non-disasters. This short paper uses local information to propose three categories according to reasons for vulnerability being low or absent. These proposed categories are used to critique the construct of “potential non-disa…
Inclusive engagement for environmental sustainability in small island states
Environmental sustainability and inclusive engagement have had numerous interpretations over the past decades, with small island states being at the forefront of seeking and applying multiple approaches. This short review selects key peer-reviewed papers from 2020 to mid-2022 on the topic of inclusive engagement for environmental sustainability in small island states. It particularly focuses on and presents different approaches to and representat…
Stormy Weather
Controlling Arms and Terror in the Asia Pacific
Geographies of resilience
In disaster science, policy and practice, the transition of resilience from a descriptive concept to a normative agenda provides challenges and opportunities. This paper argues that both are needed to increase resilience. We briefly outline the concept and several recent international resilience-building efforts to elucidate critical questions and less-discussed issues. We highlight the need to move resilience thinking forward by emphasizing stru…
Framework for integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction
A growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge has prompted calls for its use within disaster risk reduction. The use of indigenous knowledge alongside scientific knowledge is increasingly advocated but there is as yet no clearly developed framework demonstrating how the two may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards. This paper presents such a framework, using a participatory approach in which relevant…
Wave of peace? Tsunami disaster diplomacy in Aceh, Indonesia
No change from climate change
Climate change is frequently touted as the biggest development challenge that faces humanity. Such rhetoric may be distracting from other development challenges which need to be addressed simultaneously with climate change. This paper uses the case study of small island developing states (SIDS) affected by climate change to explore how focusing on climate change can depoliticise the challenges that they face. Three linked points of depoliticisati…
An Analysis of the Causes and Circumstances of Flood Disaster Deaths
The objective of this paper is to investigate and to improve understanding of the causes and circumstances of flood disaster deaths. A standardised method of classifying flood deaths is proposed and the difficulties associated with comparing and assessing existing information on flood deaths are discussed. Thirteen flood cases from Europe and the United States, resulting in 247 flood disaster fatalities, were analysed and taken as indicative of f…
Hearing local voices from Small Island Developing States for climate change
Contemporary climate change is posing significant challenges to people around the world, including to communities on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Beyond the local context, are local voices from SIDS being heard, listened to, and integrated into appropriate climate change processes? This paper details some climate change topics emerging from local voices from SIDS, discussing some dimensions of justice in how climate change is addressed …
"Understanding "Islandness
Islandness is a contested concept, not just between disciplines but also cultures, entangled with what islands, \nisland studies, and island identity are understood to be. The purpose of this article is to explore some of these \ndifferent meanings, without necessarily unifying or reconciling them, with the aim of keeping multiple \nunderstandings of islandness in creative tension. We begin by considering islandness as smallness, recognizing \nth…
Islandness within climate change narratives of small island developing states (Sids)
Small island developing states (SIDS) are portrayed as icons of climate change impacts, with assumed islandness characteristics being used to emphasize vulnerability. Meanwhile, island resilience expressed as the stability of island 'paradises' is said to be undermined by climate change. Two dominant counternarratives have been emerging. Physical science demonstrates the limited empirical evidence at the moment for SIDS being destroyed due to cli…
Local perceptions of climate change impacts and migration patterns in Malé, Maldives
For the last few decades, Maldives has been seen as being at the forefront of addressing climate change impacts. The low elevation of the islands makes them vulnerable to slow-onset hazards, such as coastal erosion, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, and change in monsoon patterns and hence rainfall. Consequently, migration has long been discussed as an adaptation strategy for the population. This study covers outcomes from our field research co…
Reflections on use of participatory research for disaster risk reduction
Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with academic researchers and development organisations working to facilitate change in collaboration with local communities. This paper contributes to recent debates over the use of participatory approaches by examining the use of participatory research within disaster risk reduction. Drawing on research in Papua New Guinea in which participatory techniques were used with indigenous comm…
Integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge bases for disaster risk reduction in papua new guinea
In investigating ways to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards it is essential to recognize the interaction between indigenous and scientific knowledge bases. Indigenous and scientific knowledge bases are dynamic entities. Using a Process Framework to identify how indigenous and scientific knowledge bases may be integrated, three communities impacted upon by environmental hazards in Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing St…
The potential for combining indigenous and western knowledge in reducing vulnerability to environmental hazards in small island developing states
The benefits of indigenous knowledge within disaster risk reduction are gradually being acknowledged and identified. This paper identifies the need for a specific framework identifying how indigenous and western knowledge may be combined to mitigate against the intrinsic effects of environmental processes and therefore reduce the vulnerability of rural indigenous communities in small island developing states (SIDS) to environmental hazards. This …
The eco‐island trap
Small islands worldwide are increasingly turning to conspicuous sustainability as a development strategy. Island spatiality encourages renewable energy and sustainability initiatives that emphasise iconicity and are undertaken in order to gain competitive advantage, strengthen sustainable tourism or ecotourism, claim undue credit, distract from failures of governance or obviate the need for more comprehensive policy action. Without necessarily co…
Hurricane Katrina disaster diplomacy
Hurricane Katrina struck the United States at the end of August 2005. The consequent devastation appeared to be beyond the US government's ability to cope with and aid was offered by several states in varying degrees of conflict with the US. Hurricane Katrina therefore became a potential case study for 'disaster diplomacy', which examines how disaster-related activities do and do not yield diplomatic gains. A review of past disaster diplomacy wor…
Imaginary Numbers of Climate Change Migrants
Within the extensive scientific and policy discussions about climate change migrants, detailed analyses continue to highlight the lack of evidence thus far for climate change directly causing migration. To understand better how climate change might or might not lead to migration, this paper explores possibilities for developing a robust, repeatable, and verifiable method to count or calculate the number of people migrating or not migrating due to…
Introduction to politics of climate change
This Themed Section aims to increase understanding of how the idea of climate change, and the policies and actions that spring from it, travel beyond their origins in natural sciences to meet different political arenas in the developing world. It takes a discursive approach whereby climate change is not just a set of physical processes but also a series of messages, narratives and policy prescriptions. The articles are mostly case study-based and…
Participatory Action Research for Dealing with Disasters on Islands
Much disaster research has a basis in non-island case studies, although monodisciplinary disaster-related research across past decades has often used case studies of individual islands. Both sets of work contribute to contemporary ‘participatory action research’ which investigates ways of dealing with disasters on islands. This paper asks what might be gained through combining disaster research, island studies, and participatory action research. …
Analysing Greek-Turkish disaster-related cooperation
This article contributes to the disaster diplomacy literature in examining the conditions under which disasters can lead to long-term disaster-related collaboration (e.g. in disaster response, recovery or risk reduction) at both governmental and non-governmental level among states in conflict. In particular, the article focuses on the role of the 1999 earthquakes in enhancing such collaboration between Greece and Turkey over the past decade. Whil…
Critiques of island sustainability in tourism
Island sustainability influences and is influenced by tourism resources, such as sun, sea, and sand for warm water destinations and ice and large mammals for cold water destinations. To understand better these influences, some critiques of island sustainability are examined with regard to their relevance for tourism, using principally theoretical discussion supported by empirical examples as exemplified through the small island developing states …
Islands of vulnerability and resilience
This paper interrogates the aspects of islandness labelled “vulnerability” and “resilience” through analysing the concepts’ definitions from a development perspective. The investigation is conducted through the lens of four assumed islandness aspects: boundedness, smallness, isolation and littorality. Discussion examines how and why core concepts of vulnerability and resilience have emerged from island studies, demonstrating how these two aspects…
Reflections on conspicuous sustainability
Arctic petroleum’s community impacts
This article examines perceptions of petroleum developments in the Norwegian Arctic town of Hammerfest, especially in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Based on eighteen semi-structured interviews conducted in Hammerfest, the perceived effects of petroleum developments are identified and discussed. Local support for petroleum activity is high, particularly given the upsurge in job opportunities and economic ripple effects, bot…
Tourism development from disaster capitalism
Informal Disaster Governance
Scholars and practitioners are increasingly questioning formal disaster governance (FDG) approaches as being too rigid, slow, and command-and-control driven. Too often, local realities and non-formal influences are sidelined or ignored to the extent that disaster governance can be harmed through the efforts to impose formal and/or political structures. A contrasting narrative emphasises so-called bottom-up, local, and/or participatory approaches …
Island Genres, Genre Islands
Island Genres, Genre Islands: conceptualisation and representation in popular fiction." Social & Cultural Geography, 20(1), pp. 135–136
Diversity and Adaptation of Shelters in Transitional Settlements for IDPs in Afghanistan
The diversity of shelters used in transitional settlements for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Herat, Afghanistan is described. The information is based on a field survey undertaken in March 2002 and highlights the adaptation techniques, which IDPs undertake to improve any provided shelter. Potential areas for improvement are indicated; for example, the possibility for using insulated, demountable liners to prevent cold-related deaths with…
An Analysis of the Causes and Circumstances of Flood Disaster Deaths
The objective of this paper is to investigate and to improve understanding of the causes and circumstances of flood disaster deaths. A standardised method of classifying flood deaths is proposed and the difficulties associated with comparing and assessing existing information on flood deaths are discussed. Thirteen flood cases from Europe and the United States, resulting in 247 flood disaster fatalities, were analysed and taken as indicative of f…
Tsunami Diplomacy
Disaster diplomacy examines whether or not disasters induce international cooperation amongst enemy countries. The 26 December, 2004 tsunami around the Indian Ocean impacted more than a dozen countries, many with internal or external conflicts, thereby providing an opportunity to explore how the same event affects different countries in different disaster diplomacy contexts. Two groups of case studies are presented: those from which few disaster …
Warning for the 26 December 2004 tsunamis
Purpose To investigate whether or not people at risk from the 26 December 2004 tsunamis could have had better warning of the event. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines short‐term actions related to warning following the earthquake and long‐term actions related to setting up an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system prior to the disaster. The evidence is presented in the context of the long‐term processes needed to create and maintain suc…
Island disaster para-diplomacy in the Commonwealth
This paper presents a first exploration into disaster para-diplomacy for sub-national island territories, conceptualizing the notion and its actual execution. Following a brief theoretical background, an overview of the legal parameters and actual practices is provided by means of case studies in island disaster para-diplomacy drawn from the Commonwealth. De facto instances of island disaster para-diplomacy occur, but opportunities for using it a…
The potential for combining indigenous and western knowledge in reducing vulnerability to environmental hazards in small island developing states
The benefits of indigenous knowledge within disaster risk reduction are gradually being acknowledged and identified. This paper identifies the need for a specific framework identifying how indigenous and western knowledge may be combined to mitigate against the intrinsic effects of environmental processes and therefore reduce the vulnerability of rural indigenous communities in small island developing states (SIDS) to environmental hazards. This …
Sustainable Livelihoods from Natural Heritage on Islands
Due to their size and isolation, and subsequent marginalization and resource limitations, islands frequently face significant development and sustainability challenges; but these same characteristics provide significant advantages too. Natural heritage can support many livelihoods, although care is needed to avoid overexploitation. This paper presents an overview of sustainable livelihoods from natural heritage on islands, indicating the challeng…
Wave of peace? Tsunami disaster diplomacy in Aceh, Indonesia
Public Policy from Disaster Anthropologists
Hurricane Katrina disaster diplomacy
Hurricane Katrina struck the United States at the end of August 2005. The consequent devastation appeared to be beyond the US government's ability to cope with and aid was offered by several states in varying degrees of conflict with the US. Hurricane Katrina therefore became a potential case study for 'disaster diplomacy', which examines how disaster-related activities do and do not yield diplomatic gains. A review of past disaster diplomacy wor…
The Meaning of ‘Build Back Better’
The 26 December 2004 tsunami disaster around the Indian Ocean provided an opportunity to see if decades of knowledge and experience on post‐disaster settlement and shelter could be applied to match the tagline which many groups gave to the post‐tsunami reconstruction: ‘build back better’ (or ‘building back better’). This paper uses evidence from field work completed on implementing settlement and shelter in post‐tsunami Aceh and Sri Lanka to exam…
Reflections on use of participatory research for disaster risk reduction
Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with academic researchers and development organisations working to facilitate change in collaboration with local communities. This paper contributes to recent debates over the use of participatory approaches by examining the use of participatory research within disaster risk reduction. Drawing on research in Papua New Guinea in which participatory techniques were used with indigenous comm…
US-Philippines Military Relations After the Mt Pinatubo Eruption in 1991
This paper explores the impact of the 1991 Mt Pinatubo eruption on the US-Republic of the Philippines military relations through the lens of disaster diplomacy. Disaster diplomacy focuses on how and why disaster-related activities (e.g. mitigation, prevention and response) do and do not yield diplomatic gains, looking mainly at disaster-related activities affecting diplomacy rather than the reverse. Disaster diplomacy 'pathways', identified in pr…
Integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge bases for disaster risk reduction in papua new guinea
In investigating ways to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards it is essential to recognize the interaction between indigenous and scientific knowledge bases. Indigenous and scientific knowledge bases are dynamic entities. Using a Process Framework to identify how indigenous and scientific knowledge bases may be integrated, three communities impacted upon by environmental hazards in Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing St…
Challenges and Opportunities of Disaster-Related Public Anthropology
Living alongside a volcano in Baliau, Papua New Guinea
Purpose The paper aims to further understand the contribution of indigenous knowledge to disaster risk reduction through reviewing the experiences of Baliau village situated on Manam Island in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Design/methodology/approach Indigenous strategies for disaster risk reduction were identified through participatory group discussions with community members, including a strengths‐weaknesses‐opportunities‐threats analysis.…
Alternatives for Sustained Disaster Risk Reduction
The daily media is filled with images of catastrophic events which seem increasingly frequent and violent. In parallel there are a large range of scientific studies, debates in the policy arena, and a growing number of international institutions focused on disaster reduction. But a paradox remains that despite advances in technology, disasters continue to increase, affecting many individuals in rich as well as poor countries
Analysing Greek-Turkish disaster-related cooperation
This article contributes to the disaster diplomacy literature in examining the conditions under which disasters can lead to long-term disaster-related collaboration (e.g. in disaster response, recovery or risk reduction) at both governmental and non-governmental level among states in conflict. In particular, the article focuses on the role of the 1999 earthquakes in enhancing such collaboration between Greece and Turkey over the past decade. Whil…
Hearing local voices from Small Island Developing States for climate change
Contemporary climate change is posing significant challenges to people around the world, including to communities on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Beyond the local context, are local voices from SIDS being heard, listened to, and integrated into appropriate climate change processes? This paper details some climate change topics emerging from local voices from SIDS, discussing some dimensions of justice in how climate change is addressed …
Framework for integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge for disaster risk reduction
A growing awareness of the value of indigenous knowledge has prompted calls for its use within disaster risk reduction. The use of indigenous knowledge alongside scientific knowledge is increasingly advocated but there is as yet no clearly developed framework demonstrating how the two may be integrated to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards. This paper presents such a framework, using a participatory approach in which relevant…
Disaster Diplomacy
When an earthquake hits a war zone or cyclone aid is flown in by an enemy, many ask: Can catastrophe bring peace? Disaster prevention and mitigation provide similar questions. Could setting up a flood warning system bring enemy countries together? Could a regional earthquake building code set the groundwork for wider regional cooperation?This book examines how and why disaster-related activities do and do not create peace and reduce conflict. Dis…
Norwegian mayoral awareness of and attitudes towards climate change
The willingness of local politicians to implement measures for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to emerging conditions is essential for successful climate change policies. This article reports findings from a survey of attitudes amongst Norwegian mayors, who prove to be fairly well informed about, and have confidence in, the climate change message. They think that Norway should do more to curb emissions, and that the municipal level …
Dealing with Climate Change on Small Island Developing States
This paper describes the main challenges that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are expected to face from climate change and possible responses to those challenges. The main impacts on SIDS from climate change are from air and sea temperature increases, changes to precipitation and storms, and ocean acidification, which in turn have major impacts on ecosystems, freshwater, and the natural resources on which islanders depend. SIDS people would…
From research to practice (and vice versa) for post-disaster settlement and shelter
Shelter Projects (2008 – IFRC/UN-Habitat/UNHCR and 2009 – IFRC/UN-Habitat) are two books aiming to consolidate some of the lessons from post-disaster settlement and shelter case studies, spanning over 60 projects from 1945 to the present. This paper analyses many of these case studies in order to reflect on how research and practice could be better connected for post-disaster settlement and shelter. The analysis reveals that challenges exist in c…
Participatory Action Research for Dealing with Disasters on Islands
Much disaster research has a basis in non-island case studies, although monodisciplinary disaster-related research across past decades has often used case studies of individual islands. Both sets of work contribute to contemporary ‘participatory action research’ which investigates ways of dealing with disasters on islands. This paper asks what might be gained through combining disaster research, island studies, and participatory action research. …
Political science (78 works) · Geography (77 works) · Disaster Management and Resilience (57 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (47 works) · Environmental planning (47 works) · Climate change (45 works) · Business (43 works) · Sociology (37 works) · Environmental resource management (33 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (33 works)