While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners' approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for major hazards and could be adapted further to particular types of disasters.
We explore how young students perceive a safe school day, what makes them feel insecure, and which factors in daily school life increase their sense of safety. Our data comprise school essays by 7th to 9th graders from one comprehensive school in Tampere, Finland. The study is a qualitative case study with a narrative approach. Applying both data-driven and theory-driven content analysis, we have classified our findings into three main categories: (a) school safety as relations between people, (b) practices that build safety in everyday school life and (c) the safety of the physical environment in the school. The emphasis is on describing and interpreting students' experiences and their life-world phenomena. We explain why there is a need for a holistic view on school safety. We primarily discuss safety as a social phenomenon encompassing participation and relationships, but also as a humanistic and cultural phenomenon encompassing dignity and well-being.
Background
Discrimination is known to negatively affect the psychological well-being of migrants. Less is known on the association between discrimination and social well-being.
Aim
We examined the association between experienced discrimination and psychological (mental health, quality of life) and social well-being (loneliness, feelings of safety, trust towards society) in Russian, Somali and Kurdish migrants in Finland.
Methods
We used data from the Finnish Migrant Health and Wellbeing Study (Maamu). The participants comprised 1795 persons of Russian, Somali or Kurdish origin aged 18–64 years. Experiences of discrimination, loneliness, safety and trust towards society were measured using interview questions. Mental health symptoms were measured using the HSCL-25 and quality of life using EUROHIS-QOL. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the associations between discrimination and psychological and social well-being, separately for the three ethnic groups.
Results
Discrimination increased the odds for mental health symptoms and decreased the odds for quality of life among Russian and Kurdish migrants, but not Somalis. Discrimination was associated with feeling unsafe and decreased trust towards society among all migrants. Among Kurds, discrimination increased the odds also for loneliness.
Conclusions
Discrimination is an essential threat to the psychological and social well-being of Russian, Somali or Kurdish migrants.
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