Speakers
Description
The concept of social vulnerability has garnered increasing focus in recent decades, owing to its extensive range and interdisciplinary characteristics. A portion of these studies has been closely associated with the domain of urban planning and development. The notion of social vulnerability became integrated into the academic discourse of urban planning and disaster management during the 1970s and 1980s. Prompted by the influential work of American geographer Gilbert Fowler White, scholars began to critically reassess the traditionally accepted notion of the "natural" character of disasters. In examining the root causes, they highlighted the significant role of human interventions in socio-ecological systems, which not only precipitate extreme natural events but also amplify their devastating consequences.
This study aims to comprehensively analyze the evolution of scholarly understanding of social vulnerability within urban planning from 1980 to 2025. The rationale behind the selection of this time frame is primarily based on the paradigm shift that occurred, coupled with the increasing emphasis on social vulnerability in the disciplines of disaster management and urban resilience.
The criteria for inclusion of publications from the Scopus database are as follows: The explicit inclusion of the term "Social Vulnerability" in the keywords; Publication dates ranging from 1980 to 2025;Selection limited to peer-reviewed journal articles, excluding books, reviews, and letters; Publications must be in the English language; Sources restricted to articles published in scientific, peer-reviewed journals.
The Scopus query generated a total of 960 articles, a figure that underscores the expanding significance of social vulnerability within both academic research and practical applications. This number also reflects the shifting academic attention towards emerging themes, methodologies, and focal areas within the field.
Full bibliometric data of this set of documents were exported in the form of text files for analysis. This included their title, date of publication, author names and affiliations, citation count, list of keywords, abstract text and list of references. In addition to statistical analysis of this bibliometric data, the structure and composition of the field was analysed using the methodology of Visualisation of Similarities (VOS) proposed by Eck and Waltman (2007), while temporal trends were identified using the Document Co-citation Analysis (DCA) methodology of Chen (2004).
In the initial sampling, the fields related to all journals that have published articles on this topic with the keyword social vulnerability since 1980 were limited to these subject areas : Social Sciences , Environmental Sciences ,Earth and planetary Sciences , Arts and Humanities, Decision Sciences.
The composition of the field can be analysed at multiple levels and using a range of indicators. At the highest level of aggregation, however, one can make this determination based on the terminologies used in the titles and abstracts of studies and their patterns of co-occurrence. This will result in the identification of major divisions within the field. The results of the research will include clustering of key areas in the field of urban vulnerability, areas requiring further attention in relation to urban planning, as well as existing research gaps.
References
- Birkmann, J. (2006) Measuring vulnerability to promote disaster-resilient societies: Conceptual frameworks and definitions. Measuring vulnerability to natural hazards : towards disaster resilient societies. J. Birkmann. Tokyo, United Nations University Press: 9-54.
- Bogardi, J. and J. Birkmann (2004) Vulnerability Assessment: the first step towards sustainable risk reduction. Disasters and Society - From hazard assessment to risk reduction. D. Malzahn and T. Plapp. Berlin, Logos Verlag: 75-82.
- Buckle, Marsch and Smale (2000) New approaches to Assessing Vulnerability and resilience "Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Winter 2008: 8-156
- Cardona, O.D. (2003) "The need for rethinking the concept of vulnerability from a holistic perspective: a necessary review and criticism for effective risk management", in Bankoff, G., Frerks, G., Hillhorst, D. (Eds),Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People, Earthscan, London, pp.37-51.
- Davidson, R. (1997) An Urban earthquake Risk Index, The John A Blume Earthquake Engineering Center, department of Civil engineering, report No 121, Standford: Stanford University
- Furukawa, Aiko and Ohta, yutaka (2009) Failure process of masonry buildings during earthquake and associated casualty risk evaluation. Nat Hazards (2009) 49:25–51
| Keywords | social vulnerability ; urban planning ; systematic review |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
