Torres Pinedo, Mara; (2023) The Role of Networks in Vulnerability and Disaster Risk Governance of Mexico City. A Mixed Methods Study with an Intersectional Approach. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Intersecting inequalities and vulnerability dynamics are reshaping urban risk configurations around the world. Cities have become magnifiers of disaster risk as well as emerging arenas to understand, address and reconfigure risk management policies. It has been widely theorised and promoted by international platforms that effective disaster risk management (DRM) depends on good governance and decentralised approaches. However, the pertinence, adequacy and differentiated outcomes in different contexts and across scales continue to be understudied. This thesis is set in Mexico City in the aftermath of the 19th of September 2017 disaster (19S). It traces the multidimensional processes that interact in the production (and reproduction) of vulnerability and the role of DRM governance on people’s experiences of urban risks. The thesis explores how vulnerability has been produced in Mexico City due to inequalities marked by evolving socio-ecological dynamics. The central tenet is how DRM governance structures and relational disparities in Mexico City have shaped vulnerability and capacity in the context of disaster risk. With a mixed methods approach, this thesis explores the structure and dynamics of DRM networks, the way people connect with these networks to address disaster risks, and the influence of intersectional identities in people's connectivity, which could help to integrate more robust and inclusive DRM policies. To highlight the compound effect of different inequalities in the construction of vulnerability, the thesis explores how much intersections matter in people's capacity to access DRM networks to prevent, cope and recover from disasters. The findings contribute to local understandings and experiences of DRM governance to reduce inequalities that emerge from the lack of situated evidence of complex challenges, which ultimately contribute to risk and vulnerability. This thesis makes a case for mixed-methods social network analysis, as a relevant approach to the study of DRM governance, and intersectionality, as a critical lens and practice, for the study and practice of DRM.

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