A recent appraisal of disaster studies undertaken over the past 40 years draws attention to the urgency of advancing different epistemologies that reflect local realities of disaster experiences and of developing appropriate instruments with which to do so. This paper argues that feminist methods and perspectives can contribute greatly to this important endeavour of promoting epistemic diversity in research on disasters, advancing approaches that engender the co-construction of knowledge, and consequently challenging the 'hegemonic' (and often gender-blind) narratives that dominate disaster studies today. Specifically, the paper makes a case for a feminist photobased approach that I designed (PhotoKwento) to examine women's experiences of disaster recovery in Tacloban City, Philippines. It demonstrates how the technique fosters engaged research relationships and participatory knowledge construction practices pertaining to disaster experiences. In addition, it highlights the potential of PhotoKwento to embody the qualities of research that are necessary for the progress of disaster studies 'from below'.
This article explores the intersection of sexual and reproductive health, development and human rights in the context of managing post-disaster relief and rehabilitation operations. As a case study, it investigates the disaster response and rehabilitation efforts carried out in southern Philippines after the devastation wrought by the tropical storm Washi (locally known as Sendong) in December 2011, which resulted in thousands of casualties, with thousands more displaced and forced to live in makeshift evacuation centers. Using a varied range of methods for data collection, including personal interviews, group workshops, body mapping, and a socio-demographic and reproductive health survey in evacuation camps, the study reveals how post-disaster interventions and strategies remain grounded in medicotechnical and managerial narratives, thereby marginalizing the sexual and gendered dimensions of calamities. I argue that this marginalization in disaster risk-management practices renders gender and sexuality impersonal, disembodied and apolitical. In doing so, disaster risk management runs the risk of reproducing inequalities, vulnerabilities, and social exclusion in the aftermath of calamities. This article aims at broadening our understanding of disaster risk reduction and management by re-centering sexuality Kaira Zoe K. Alburo-Cañete, Assistant Professor of Gender and Development, University of the Philippines Cebu.
The publication of a controversial article in Third World Quarterly and the consequent unveiling and critical questioning of journal practices continue to engender strong negative feelings for many scholars. At a critical juncture within the publication process of this collection, we faced an ethical dilemma regarding how to maintain political and ethical commitments while manoeuvring within a sometimes hostile academic environment. Here we examine the dilemma and its resolutions to reflect on configurations of power in academia. Through the lenses of (dis)comfort, judgement and solidarity, we examine the affective intensities that shaped our individual and collective decisions. Reflections on the process reveal the need to attend to how affects shape the resolution of shared ethical dilemmas in ways that reinforce structural (dis)advantages. We argue that 'comfort' , achieved through solidarities, allows for the navigation of the ethical-political in ways open to multiple possibilities. Decolonial practice should attend to affective practices that privilege some claims over others and limit the capacity of future scholars to shape the ethical terrain of development studies.
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