Natural Hazards, Risk and Vulnerability

"Riverbank settlers in Jakarta face risk every day and, what Roanne van Voorst refers to as, ‘normal uncertainty’. Power relations can drive this risk and people have developed strategies in order to deal with nature and the powerful elite. Readers of this highly informative book will have greater understanding and compassion the next time they see media coverage of bulldozers pulling down houses."– Ben Wisner, UCL Hazard Research Centre, University College London, UK

"Uncovering just how differently people behave and why they behave differently in a crisis is the central concern of this study of a flood-prone community in Jakarta. Finding theory in daily life, Roanne Voorst has written a masterful work of discovery, analysis and empathy."– Greg Bankoff, University of Hull, UK

"This book is an outstanding account of how poor people strategize, in the confines of the limited resources at hand, to deal with recurring disaster. It conveys a powerful message to politicians and aid programmes about the crucial importance to build policy and intervention on grounded research into people's everyday realities."– Dorothea Hilhorst, professor of humanitarian aid and reconstruction at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

"This book fills strategic gaps in disaster studies, showing how vulnerable people see risks as part of regular life experiences. The author shows how the diversity of coping strategies reflects people’s responses to existing structural constraints and their own agency. The book is excellently written and will appeal to academics, professionals and the wider public." – I.S.A. Baud, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and President of the European Association of Development Institutes (EADI), Germany

‘‘For these impoverished slum dwellers, flood risk is not a one-off natural disaster but a normal part of their daily struggle to survive. Roanne van Voorst’s ‘thick’ account of their lives is peopled with unforgettable characters and written in a fluid, literary style. I found it deeply moving.’’ – Gerry van Klinken, University of Amsterdam, senior researcher KITLV Leiden, The Netherlands

"This is an innovative book about the urban poor that challenges simple categorizations. Based on fieldwork under very difficult circumstances, Roanne van Voorst applies a view from below which foregrounds the agency and the heterogeneity of various groups of people who try to determine their future."– Henk Schulte Nordholt, KITLV/Leiden University, The Netherlands