PLEASE NOTE:
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WPA CONVENTION TO HOST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MANAGING
GLOBAL-SCALE
DISASTERS
http://www.westernpsych.org/wp/index.cfm?id=6
by Harvey Wichman, Claremont McKenna College
An all-day workshop for a limited number of participants will be
held on
Friday April 12th in conjunction with the WPA annual convention.
The
workshop is designed to bring together those interested in the
psychological
and socio-cultural aspects of coping with major disasters.
The events of September 11th made eminently clear the need for
dealing with
disasters that go far beyond, the scope of local, regional and
even national
concerns. The time is at hand to develop innovative methods of
response to
traumatic occurrences that are global in effect. The workshop
will focus on
the issues related to dealing with global- scale disasters which
are certain
to be caused in the future by a variety of events including large
asteroids
and comets striking the Earth., Such events will cause
devastation ranging
from regional to global and could even constitute a threat to
life itself.
Most of the workshop results should be applicable to coping with
disasters
of all sorts including regional disasters such as hurricanes,
earthquakes,
nuclear accidents, and large-scale terrorist attacks.
A mostly technically oriented workshop on this topic was held in
Spain last
year by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
which
focussed on the scientific facts about the threat and technical
means to
detect and possibly deflect the incoming bodies to minimize or
even avoid
some threats. However the psychological and socio-cultural
dimensions of
such global-scale disasters were not explored in the Spain
workshop. Thus
the social science community was asked by the leader of that
workshop to
organize this complementary WPA workshop to explore such issues.
While
currently there is a modest literature on the human aspects of
coping with
local and regional disasters, very little has been done on
disasters of a
global-scale since the early days of the cold war and concerns
about nuclear
winter. Because future impacts by asteroids and comets will
certainly occur,
the purpose of this workshop is to explore the latest thinking
about the
human aspects of dealing with such catastrophes. This will be
done via
presentations by a number of experts, and by bringing together
social
scientists with disaster interest and/or expertise, and others
who would
like to get involved with this topic,, to brainstorm and set some
guidelines
for future research and thinking.
The workshop will feature seven papers by eminent scholars from
several
disciplines. The first speaker will provide a factual scientific
background
by summarizing the results of the Spain workshop, describing the
threat that
Earth faces from impacts by asteroids and comets and
countermeasures that
may be possible. Six eminent authorities on the human dimension
will then
address key psychological and socio-cultural issues associated
with dealing
with such large-scale disasters, both before and after they
occur. Following
lunch and informal discussions those attending will join with the
speakers
in a moderated give-and-take discussion among the participants
and the
speakers to distill the issues, conclusions, and recommended
actions.
THE PAPERS:
THE THREAT TO EARTH FROM ASTEROIDS AND COMETS, AND POSSIBLE
COUNTERMEASURES,
Clark Chapman, Office of Space Studies, Southwest Research
Institute, USA.
PREPARING THE PUBLIC FOR AN IMPENDING DISASTER, Benny Peiser,
School of
Human Science, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
LIFE AND DEATH ISSUES IN MINIMIZING AND MANAGING CASUALTIES,
Albert
Harrison, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Davis.
ORGANIZING FOR EFFECTIVE GLOBAL ACTION, Geoffrey Sommer, (Policy
Studies),
Risk Management Division, the Rand Corporation.
MANAGING MAJOR POST-DISASTER SOCIETAL DISRUPTIONS, Lee Clarke,
Department of
Sociology, Rutgers University.
MANAGING POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS IN INDIVIDUALS, Douglas Vakoch and
Tammy
Calvano, Department of Psychology, University of California,
Davis.
CRISIS LEADERSHIP FOR COPING WITH GLOBAL-SCALE DISASTERS, Ian
Mitroff,
Harold Quinton Professor of Business Policy, University of
Southern
California.
The workshop was organized by Harvey Wichman, Director of the
Aerospace
Psychology Laboratory at Claremont McKenna College (CMC), and
Ivan Bekey, a
Space Engineer with the International Academy of Astronautics and
organizer
of the Spain technical workshop. The Kravis Leadership Institute
at CMC will
sponsor the workshop and assist with publishing the results.
Ronald Riggio,
Director of the Kravis Leaderreship Institute will moderate the
workshop
discussions.
For those who do not attend the workshop but are interested in
hearing a
summary presentation of what took place there, WPA will present a
Symposium
on Saturday April 13th in which Ivan Bekey, Ronald Riggio and
Harvey Wichman
will present highlights from each of the papers and summarize the
workshop
discussions, conclusions, and recommendations.