Abstract

RUBIO CARRIQUIRIBORDE, Ignacio. The structure of vulnerability within a large disaster risk scenario. Invest. Geog [online]. 2012, n.77, pp.75-88. ISSN 2448-7279.

Social vulnerability is an essential component of risk. It manifests itself differently among the actors that make up a disaster scenario, so when studied it tends to be fragmented either by type or by groups. Based on the need to provide integral analysis of risk, and on the idea that each person's vulnerability is a function of their means of action/decision against threats, the article presents the notion of structure vulnerability as a conceptual tool to account the interdependencies between the decisions and capabilities within the overall framework of a risk scenario. The structure of vulnerability is here defined as the framework of relations of power and control that limits or allows each agent to act upon the territory and upon other players; it emerges with particular force when a single agent is capable of controlling the fundamentals of the hazards as was the case of disaster in 2007 involved a complex system of dams in southeastern Mexico.

Keywords : Social vulnerability; risk; disasters; dams.

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