ABSTRACT
Yusuf is one of the residential volunteers. He feels that it is his task to assist the Jakarta government in helping residents to stay safe during floods. Floods occur frequently in this neighbourhood, which is called Bantaran Kali in this chapter. Several times each year, inhabitants experience small floods that come and go within a day. An important stream in the sociological literature known as the vulnerability approach' has emphasized that contextual economic, social, and political structures limit people's ability to handle hazards most notably economic deprivation, political marginalization and social isolation. There is no doubt that communities living with natural hazards establish cultural coping mechanisms. Therefore it is necessary to discuss yet one other important stream of risk literature from which the author derived insights relevant to his study, namely the stream that is built upon psychological risk research.
