Cultural aspects of risk to environmental changes and hazards: A review of perspectives

Culture is gaining acknowledgment as a potentially crucial determinant of risk within the disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (adaptation) fields. It refers to religious and traditional beliefs and values, and often drives social structures, livelihood choices, and settlement patterns. Despite this, there is little attention to what culture means in the context of risk to justify why it matters to those working in DRR or adaptation. The literature on the links between culture and risk shows two related and reoccurring arguments: (1) risk is socially and culturally constructed and (2) culture is the root of all behaviors. However, integrating culture into the risk reduction paradigm requires more evidence of those links. This chapter delves into the literature to explore a viable typology.

The social construction of risk holds that the way disaster is perceived, made sense of, and/or acted upon by an individual or a community is largely determined by culture. When a hazard is perceived, made sense of, and/or acted upon ina way that is not resilient, this creates risk. Judgement on the severity of risk in relation to other day-to-day priorities, what risks are worthy of attention, fixing the locus of responsibility for the hazard, and locus of responsibility for response to or preparation for this hazard are four points raised by the literature on perception of risk.

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