ABSTRACT
We saw in Chapter One how government cyclone mitigation policies represented by the Conventional View relied on a concept of vulnerability based on exposure measured by losses. In Chapter Two we presented an Alternative View which gathered together a wide range of views mainly deriving from social-science research, and a conceptual model of differential vulnerability which consisted of three components (i) the processes and interrelationships between climate, physiography, development policies and the social relations of production; (ii) the relation between production, exchange and consumption and the accumulation or depletion of assets; and (iii) risk-reduction strategies. This model widened our concept of vulnerability. In this chapter we will first describe the study area and the physical, social and economic features of Divi Seema as they relate to the components in the first part of that model, and then go on to describe the fieldwork programme and the methodology.
