Review of Risk, Disaster, and Vulnerability: An Essay on Humanity and Environmental Catastrophe by S. Ravi Rajan

Watching houses slide down the cliffs in Pacifica, California, makes me question how people choose to take risks with their largest capital investment, perching it on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Why do people buy new homes adjacent to freight railroad tracks that carry hazardous materials from Oregon to Mexico? Why do other people choose to live near the San Andreas Fault in California? How do we prevent nuclear power plant accidents while benefiting from relatively clean energy as we try to cut greenhouse gas emissions? S. Ravi Rajan, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the founder of the Global Environmental Justice Observatory, ponders questions such as these in Risk, Disaster, and Vulnerability.

The book’s title suggests it would be a study of probabilities, filled with mathematical formulas and statistical analyses. In fact, the book does not contain a single mathematical formula. Rather, it is a philosophical treatise that draws on the environmental humanities to explore the question: How do environmental hazards affect social and political orders? But the book is also not a polemic on capitalism and environmental degradation, although that perspective is mentioned. Instead, it is a thoughtful examination of the challenges of the Technocene, a proposed representation of geologic time that corresponds with the inability of humans to manage complex technologies and their accompanying hazards. During the Technocene, humans no longer have the capacity to guarantee the safe operation of industrial sites such as chemical plants (Bhopal) and nuclear power plants (Chernobyl and Fukushima).

Rajan refers to the book as “a humanistic exercise in inter- and transdisciplinary synthesis, [that attempts] to extract philosophical insights from otherwise technical discussions” (p. 7). The first chapter, “Setting the Stage,” introduces a variety of philosophical perspectives that can be adopted by analysts to understand risk, especially risk that involves technology. Rajan also considers different religious perspectives, various understandings of safety, the concept of controlling technological outcomes, and the social vulnerabilities that come from the use of technology. Ultimately, the opening chapter provides insights into how these philosophical perspectives impact the concept of “the general good,” and in turn the concepts of “democracy, rights and accountability” (p. 5).

The chapter on “Risk” examines the various public policy positions related to environmental regulation from the 1960s to the present. Rajan adopts a multidisciplinary approach to explore how societies accept the risks and vulnerabilities created by technology and their trade-offs. As an illustrative example, the chapter explores the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s approach to risk assessment, which uses science-based approaches to understand how chemicals impact the human body, impacts that may not be known for several decades after initial exposure. Rajan concludes that navigating the risk paradigm requires understanding the problem through scientific knowledge, creating mitigation measures for the problem using economic and legal tools, and communicating these mitigation measures clearly to the public.

The chapter on “Disaster” considers how social dynamics, human psychology, and complex technical systems interact to create catastrophes. Rajan focuses on the types of accidents that can occur and the countermeasures that can minimize their impact. The topics explored include human error, organizational deviance, normal accidents, and high-reliability organizations. Rajan also considers issues of intentionality and greed, especially in corporations. While safety is everyone’s concern, the complexity of modern engineered systems reveals that the human tendency to deviate from strict rules works together with corporate greed to engender disasters like Bhopal and Chernobyl. The lens of environmental technology invites readers to reflect on the great social question: who benefits and who pays?

The chapter on “Vulnerability” examines why some people and groups suffer more from disasters than others. Like many emergency management scholars, Rajan identified the interaction of hazards with disastrous events, noting the role of complex systems in exceeding human capability to manage future unknowns. To demonstrate this point, Fukushima is presented as an example of how natural and technological hazards combine to create disaster. Rajan also explains how hubris contributes to the inability of humans to control the Technocene, with industrial disaster as “the inevitable consequence” (p. 84). This chapter also considers the exploitation that can occur after technological disasters. For example, after the Bhopal disaster, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) raised funds based on the environmental health damage done to the local people, while ignoring their day-to-day needs.

The final chapter, “Looking Ahead,” “grapples with the messier aspects of human agency and capacity” (p. 115). The messiness comes from the lack of simple explanations for the complex relationships that exist in an environment of “critical infrastructure” (p. 120). Rajan notes that the infrastructure includes not just the built environment but also “community expertise, including skills, techniques and worldviews” (p. 120). Sections revisit reflexivity and address democracy, justice, and prospects.

Rajan suggests that the solution to this messiness resides within the spectrum of risk management strategies, from business-as-usual capitalism to policy and technology changes derived from more thoughtful evaluation of the threats posed by the Technocene and its complex technological organizations. While Rajan concludes that a moderate approach based on sustainability and technological substitution is likely, he argues that the approach will not address environmental justice issues of unequal distribution of pollution and danger.

Risk, Disaster, and Vulnerability is a thought-provoking book that introduces readers to concepts from the humanities and applies them to topics related to engineering, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The book’s brevity and concise organization help readers navigate Rajan’s thought processes. The density of the philosophical arguments, however, makes the book less appealing for the social scientist or the emergency management practitioner. Parts of the book become tedious, especially as words are parsed and definitions refined. The book also would benefit from more practical discussions of the concepts being presented because when Rajan uses case studies to demonstrate his ideas, the meanings become much easier to understand.

A unique characteristic of the book is that it eschews standard citations and reference lists for bibliographic essays. Rajan suggests this system allows for a discussion of “a wide range of literatures, offering explanations of important assumptions, and giving definitions of some central concepts” (p. 125). While the bibliographic essays may be of interest to some, an alphabetical bibliography would have been beneficial for researchers and practitioners who want to look at the source material used in the book. Without citations, it is difficult to know which ideas belong to the author and which ideas come from the writers listed in the bibliographic essay.

Ideas about risk in the Technocene are challenging but could benefit practitioners who struggle to create good public policy against administrative intransigence. Looking at community risk through philosophical lenses might also reveal new strategies for overcoming political influence, economic imperatives, the focus on tax rolls, and a fatalistic view that inequality is inherent in society. Additionally, current interests in diversity, equity, and inclusion might open the way for consideration of some of Rajan’s concepts about community and involvement in policymaking. Unfortunately, because of the book’s philosophical structure, the readers will most likely be researchers and academics. It can only be hoped that they can translate the philosophical discussions into practical applications for the engineering and social science students who will be the agents of change as humans navigate the Technocene.