Disasters are amplifiers for societal hierarchies and structures, which is also supported by the current Covid-19 pandemic. They showcase otherwise naturalised everyday privileges and discriminations which becomes most obvious in the unequal consequences of disasters for different societal milieus and groups. Disaster research and disaster management have been increasingly aware of the injustices at play. Although this is emphasised also in the current Sendai-Framework, on a national and local level there often is little discussion on the question of who bears what share of responsibility to reduce vulnerabilities and if those considered responsible are capable of doing so.

This roundtable takes this discussion up and scrutinizes the normative implications of reducing vulnerabilities. In this vein, not only capacities and living situations of those who are ascribed responsibility should be considered. Moreover, normalities shall be identified that are foundational for those discriminations that have become more and more subject to disaster research and disaster ethics. The roundtable brings together a range of actors from the fields of disaster research and practical disaster management on a national and international level. It fuses the spheres of welfare and disaster policies to think disasters from different perspectives. Therefore, speakers from different professional backgrounds and research projects (including national and international projects on social capital, care, health infrastructures and disaster ethics) are discussing current trends in disaster research and their implications for disaster management. All inputs will be discussed from an ethical standpoint on responsibility and justice.

The roundtable discusses questions including, but not limited to, the following:

• Who is for what reason (in)visible in disasters?
• What vulnerabilities do exist? What do these vulnerabilities imply?
• Who is considered responsible for reducing these vulnerabilities? And how can this be put into practice?
• Which capacities do specific actors have to reduce vulnerabilities?
• Do disasters and/or disaster management discriminate?
• What are other yardsticks to evaluate the ethical acceptability of disaster policies?

The roundtable will be composed of three sections: Starting with short statements of the invited speakers who share their views and issues regarding “Why disaster ethics matter” with regard to their work a basis of diverse viewpoints will be laid out for a broader discussion. Building on this a discussion on the raised topics will be held among the speakers. This will finally be opened up for the audience to join in and ask their questions.

In order to allow us to address a broad range of associated questions, we invite all attendees to send their questions beforehand to friedrich.gabel@izew.uni-tuebingen.de. We will try to include them into the second part of the round table for an even broader set of “Perspectives on Vulnerabilities and the Responsibilities to reduce them”.

The session is not limited to a specific number of participants and no registration is necessary. To reduce distractions though, we would love for participants to join the round table for the whole time.

Speakers

Abriel Schieffelers is a social worker and policy officer coordinating the BuildERS project research for The Salvation Army EU Affairs Office, Belgium. Her experience in EU policy advocacy includes topics such as migration, homelessness, poverty, and human trafficking.

Anouk Ros has been working for the Netherlands Red Cross since 2015. She has an MA from the University in Groningen in International Security and is currently working as Crisis Manager and Policy Advisor for the National Emergency Department. Her main focus is emergency response and civil resilience.

Marco Krüger works as a research associate at the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is the coordinator of the AUPIK research consortium dealing with the resilience of the ambulatory care infrastructure. His research interests lie at the crossroads of (critical) security studies, resilience and security ethics.

Henrik Olinder is a Senior Expert Crisis Communication and Editor at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). At MSB he implements Crisis Communication training for communication officers and executives at local and national levels of government. It includes advising government agencies in crisis. He is responsible for editing research reports, methodology and funding of research. Member of the Editor board at the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research (JICRCR). He is a former member of the board for the Swedish Association of Communication Professionals. He is co-author of a book about Rhetorical Images in Journalism.

Dr Lauren Traczykowski is Senior Lecturer in Law (Ethics) and Director of External Engagement for the CRISIS Centre at Aston University. Also at Aston, Lauren serves on the Decolonizing the Curriculum Working Group (DCWG). She is a Board Director of the Birmingham Food Council CIC. Lauren’s broad areas of research are disaster ethics and pedagogy, particularly playful learning, and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now AdvanceHE).

Chairs

Friedrich Gabel works as a research associate at the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tübingen, Germany, since 2014. His research interests lie in the field of disaster- and security ethics as well as security & disability. He is the coordinator of the EKAMED research project funded by the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, which is concerned with the development of an ethics guideline for civil protection personnel.

Katharina Wezel works as a research associate at the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tübingen. She is currently involved in the AUPIK research project dealing with the resilience of the ambulatory care infrastructure. Her research interests lie in the field of critical security studies, gender and health, global health governance and sociology of knowledge.