京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第22710号 / 地環博第200号 / 新制||地環||39(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 星野 敏, 教授 西前 出, 教授 寶 馨 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

The master thesis deals with the issue of risk management in a selected business entity. The subject of the research is the risks of the selected entity. The object of the research is a Slovak company with the changed name Betolta, a.s., that main activity is the production of reinforced concrete precast units. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The thesis deals in more detail with the current state of the researched issues, identification, analysis and evaluation of risks using the methods of strategic situational analysis. The conclusion of the work deals with proposals and recommendations for improving the identified situation.

This dissertation develops a mixed integer linear program to establish the upper and lower bounds of the Alphorn of Uncertainty. For a project manager, planning for uncertainty is a staple of their jobs and education. But the uncertainty associated with a catastrophic event presents difficulties not easily controlled with traditional methods of risk management. This dissertation brings and modifies the concept of a project schedule as a bounded “Alphorn of Uncertainty” to the problem of how to reduce the risk of a catastrophic event wreaking havoc on a project and, by extension, the company participating in that project. The dissertation presents new mathematical models underpinning the methods proposed to reduce risk as well as simulations to demonstrate the accuracy of those models. The dissertation further assesses the complexity of the models and thus their practical application. Finally, the dissertation presents strategies to reduce the risk to a project of a catastrophic event using the upper bound of the Alphorn as the measure of risk.

Background: A shift from physical trading to online shopping has taken place. Generation W trades online to a lesser extent compared to generations X and Y, even though they have strong purchasing power. Perceived risk is one of the reasons why consumers choose to refrain from shopping online. Previous research in the area of risk recommends future research to study more profound older adults' perceived risks with e-commerce. When consumers experience risks, they develop risk-reducing methods to reduce the risks. Riskreduction methods can range from consulting a friend to completely refraining from shopping. Research question: What is generation Ws view regarding risk and risk reduction methods? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore what risks and risk reduction strategies are perceived among generation W when shopping online. Theory: Risk and risk reduction theories, buyer process models and decision making modelsare used in this study. Method: The essay is based on a qualitative descriptive study where primary data has been collected using semi structured interviews. Conclusion: Many previously known risks as well as some newly found risks like environmental risks and the risk of urban environment degradation are presented. Generation W uses risk-reducing methods or chooses to refrain from shopping online. Respondents explained the importance of their previous experience in e-commerce, which has laid the foundation for how they act in online trading today.

Gender inequality greatly affects the vulnerability of women in many areas of societal development. Gender mainstreaming is used as a strategy to include a gender perspective in policy and practice to decrease vulnerability. In regular development there is a discrepancy between policy and practice, but especially so in contexts of disaster. This thesis aims to examine how gender mainstreaming strategies are implemented in disaster risk reduction. The main purpose is to create an understanding of how such processes translate into practice both in relief efforts and resilience-building projects. A case-study of the Swedish Red Cross is the foundation of this thesis, looking at how these processes flow from theory to policy to practice. Semi-structured interviews with professionals from the field serve as the main method. A content analysis of IFRC policies regulating gender action will supplement the interviews. The results illustrate a discrepancy between the gender-focused policy and a women-centric implementation, and further highlight the role of donors and ‘the Tyranny of Urgency’. These results, and consequently this thesis, contributes to recognizing the feminization of responsibility in the field of development in general, but especially in the context of disaster.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction calls for collaboration across sectors in society as an effective way to reduce disaster risk in order to safeguard lives, human wellbeing, and development gains from potential disasters. However, the effectiveness of these cross-sector collaboration approaches has most often been studied in the context of rapid onset disasters such as floods, with less focus on slow-onset disasters such as multiple year droughts. There is also limited research on the contributions of cross-sector collaborations towards Disaster Risk Reduction in African cities. For this study, I set out to investigate cross-sector collaboration efforts contributing to drought response in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe; and how these collaborations were contributing towards fulfilling the four priority areas of the Sendai Framework. These include i) understanding disaster risk, ii) strengthening disaster risk governance, iii) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response. In this qualitative study, I made use of purposive and snowball sampling methods to select 14 key informants from national and local government, non-governmental organisations, and civil society organisations who were directly involved in eight drought related cross-sector collaborations. I conducted in depth semi-structured interviews with these key informants between 2018 and 2019. For the analysis, I followed prior developed themes based on Bryson et al. (2006) theoretical framework to understand cross-sector collaborations. I also applied a typology of barriers and enablers developed from the literature in the analysis, and interpreted emergent themes using NVivo software. I then assessed the contributions of the identified cross-sector collaborations to the activities listed under each of the four priority areas in the Sendai Framework. The findings highlighted the socio-political and economic context of the city of Harare had seeped through and influenced the cross-sector collaborations responding to drought. They shed light on how taking advantage of widely accessible social media platforms serve to enhance collaborations. Additionally, the results highlight the importance of existing networks and relationships in enabling cross-sector collaborations to occur effectively. Most of the cross-sector collaborations occurring in response to drought were originally formed for other reasons and included drought response during the peak of the drought disaster. Collaborations were effective at contributing towards engaging communities in risk assessment and reporting at the local level (Priority 1) and ensuring continual provisioning of services (water) during and after disasters (Priority 4). I make suggestions for collaborations to consider issues of power and how these affect the effectiveness of collaborations on the ground with regards to ensuring social justice and reducing inequality. Finally, I conclude that cross-sector collaborations would be more effective in response to slow-onset disasters when they are formed and applied before the disaster is at its peak. I also suggest that the design and implementation of the cross-sector collaborations be tailor made to consider the socio-political and economic aspects of the city in their design for effective response.

This thesis aims to display how disastrous events in the cyber domain can be understood to have root causes attributed to non-technical vulnerabilities. The goal is to show the accelerating importance in understanding the cyber domain as any other societal arena. Further, the European Union and reports about the threat landscape from the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity will be analysed. Theoretical assumption from the field of disaster risk reduction about vulnerabilities will be used to understand how vulnerabilities are understood in the empirical material. The first report which was released in the year of 2012 and the most current one from the year of 2022 will be compared to understand patterns and correlations in the development during the last decade. The results shows that the reports have multiple features that can be interpreted as understanding of how events offline relate to threats online. Further the comparison shows that even if superficial factors and their appearance have changed, the underlying vulnerabilities have much in common.

The international community has been working on reducing disaster risks for decades, investing millions of dollars and implementing hundreds of projects in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). There is a broad consensus nowadays between academia and practitioners of how disasters result from exposure and vulnerabilities, where it’s essential to reduce these vulnerabilities. However, regardless of all efforts made, vulnerabilities seem to persist and local knowledge is often limited due to the top-down approach of DRR-projects. Based on a field study in Huila, Colombia, this thesis examines why vulnerabilities persist by studying the local sense-making of disaster risks and DRR of the practitioners and consumers of these projects. A discourse analysis, grounded in a Foucauldian and post-structuralist approach, identifies and further analyzes discourses, considering power dynamics. The thesis findings highlight three different understandings of DRR among the participants: the Colombian Red Cross (CRC), the city's recipients and the indigenous community of Nasa Çxhaçxha. The dominant discourse of the CRC, focusing on DRR measures of self-reliance, generates knowledge that overlooks the contextual risks of the recipients, which strengthens what previous research has already concluded. The thesis can contribute to existing research by emphasizing how educational programmes for improving risk awareness have been too generalized and overlooked the contextual vulnerabilities and risks, which in turn has reproduced the dominant knowledge of DRR, generating a cyclic process that enganger to reproduce the risks and thereby also making the vulnerabilities persist.

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