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SUMMARY:Bunkers and other risk assessments: (im-)material calculations of 
 military and natural disasters - Michael Guggenheim (Goldsmiths\, Universi
 ty of London)
DTSTART:20120508T160000Z
DTEND:20120508T180000Z
UID:TALK37601@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Leon Rocha
DESCRIPTION:Please note that this seminar takes place *from 5pm to 7pm at 
 CRASSH Seminar Room SG2.* Co-organised with the "Between Civilisation and 
 Militarisation":http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/1051/b-civilisation--mili
 tarisation.htm Group.\n\nWhat is a risk assessment? How can a bunker be a 
 risk assessment? Previous literature on risk\, risk calculation and prepar
 edness has either focused on different forms of preparedness or on how ris
 k calculations as statistical devices are performed. This talk centres on 
 the implicit and material dimensions of risk calculations through forms of
  preparedness. I argue that risk assessments are not just formal ways of c
 alculating risks but implicit and often material practices. As such\, impl
 icit and material risk assessments were always made by societies which dec
 ided to prepare for some disasters but not others and which found specific
  preparation technologies such as building granaries or constructing house
 s in a way that makes them more likely to withstand earthquakes or avalanc
 hes. But in modern states organisations such as civil protection base thei
 r operations on these risk assessments as well. In my talk I will trace ho
 w the operations of civil defence organisations have shifted from focusing
 \non nuclear war until the 1980s to natural disasters and all hazards appr
 oaches. Comparing Switzerland and the UK\, I will show that calculative ri
 sk assessments were impossible because of the different qualities of the d
 isasters and that implicit and material risk\nassessments were instrumenta
 l for changes in organizational policy.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Seminar Room
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