ABSTRACT
According to most authors, risk and disasters are socially constructed phenomena and should therefore be studied in the contexts in which they occur (Rodriguez, 2005). In fact, at the level of the individuals’ and their communities responses to natural and technological disasters, the discussion between actual risk and perceived risk is put aside by the fact that social vulnerability and resilience, defined as the abilities to deal with disasters and to create new life styles in accordance to the conditions derived from them (Manyema 2006), depend almost entirely on the perception of risks.
