ABSTRACT
The frequency and intensity of disaster events has increased alarmingly over the past few decades, affecting the livelihoods of poor people. In response, policy makers and aid practitioners adopted community-based approaches to disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) as an alternative to top-down disaster management. Many aid organizations operationalize CBDRR by addressing the immediate unsafe conditions as direct manifestations of risk, rather than tackling the underlying risk factors and root causes. Although the social, economic and political origins of disasters that make populations vulnerable are beginning to be recognized, they still are largely ignored in practice (Wilkinson 2012, Bender 1999, Blaikie et al. 1994). This chapter analyses the spatial, institutional and political dimensions of CBDRR in Central Java, Indonesia, and argues that interpreting disasters and identifying risk reduction measures are negotiated and political processes. This requires CBDRR interventions to think ahead of objectives to be achieved at institutional and spatial levels beyond the village.
