Dr Brian Cook
Contact Details
Email: b.r.cook@dundee.ac.uk
Phone: +44(0) 1382 386467
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Brian is a Post Doctorate Researcher at the IHP-HELP Centre. His research explores the prevailing knowledges and conceptualisations that inform and contest water, flood and risk management in both the global North and South. Brian uses a combination of methods and theoretical frameworks to engage with knowledge construction, calculation and transfer in order to interrogate the embedded assumptions that influence disaster management and the implementation of national-scale development and mitigation strategies.
Top Publications
Cook, B.R. 2008. Controversy in Bangladesh: what sort of knowledge for what sort of flood management? Geography 93 (2): 114-118.
Cook, B.R. 2010. Flood Risk Knowledge and Management in Bangladesh. Geography Compass.
Cook, B.R. 2010. Book Review of ‘Environmental Hazards 5th ed.’ Disasters. 34 (2) 589 – 591.
Cook, B.R. & Wisner, B. 2010. Editorial: Water, risk and vulnerability in Bangladesh: Twenty years since the FAP. Environmental Hazards. (9) 3-7.
Cook, B.R. & Lane, S.N. 2010. Communities of Knowledge: subsidence, flood management and the role of expertise in the Bay of Bengal. Environmental Hazards. (9) 8-25.
Book Chapters, Journal Editing and Review
Brian conceived, organised and am co-editing a special issue of Environmental Hazards focused on flood management in Bangladesh. The issue uses the 20 year anniversary of the Flood Action Plan (FAP) to situate a discussion of water, risk and vulnerability, recognising the drastic changes that have come about since the pivotal reports were published. Twelve leading voices, including Bangladeshi and international experts, have contributed to the issue, which is set for Winter publication 2009. There has also been discussion with Earthscan to publish the collection as an edited volume.
Brian’s work is located at the science-society interface but is more than a mediator; as an transdisciplinary geographer He uses the social sciences to challenge and analyze ‘how’ and ‘why’ particular forms of knowledge production and practice become established and persist.
Research Interests
Brian’s research is driven by recognition for the increasing complexity and uncertainty surrounding environmental management due to climate and social change, particularly as experienced by environmental managers and practitioners. His research of environmental hazards is situated on the borders of human geography, development and science and technology studies. In particular, Brian has four main areas of interest, each of which he hopse to develop into significant publications over the coming three years. AAs Brian describes them, they are:
- Contested Environmental Management: In this area I engage with the conflicts that increasingly structure environmental management. Given recent criticisms of scientific knowledge and practice (e.g. over the potential impacts of climate change or the responsibility of government/civil society), I am interested in the decision making process and in the ways that governments implement policy in light of increasing uncertainty. I argue that uncertainty cannot be ‘factored-in’ and instead must be communicated to stakeholders in order to more productively engage with the socio-physical environment. My research in Bangladesh has allowed me to explore this issue, particularly the competing constructions and debates surrounding what constitutes an environmental ‘problem’ and, ultimately, its management.
- Engineering the Environment: Emerging from my BA and MA, I have a keen interest in the engineering community and its responsibility for the infrastructures that bridge people and place. More specifically, I am interested in the materiality of management and in how technical structures influence understanding and practice. I ground this research in the material and agency literatures, emphasising the mutually-formative nature of flood structures and knowledge. In addition, the role of engineers is undergoing significant change. Their interaction with stakeholders is an increasingly important element of future management that is neglected within hazard and risk research, particularly given climate, urban and demographic projections. This emphasis on the science-management interface addresses the need for further analysis of the evolving conceptualizations involved in risk and vulnerability management. The proposal involving a UK-Canada comparison builds upon this theme.
- Interdisciplinarity and Holistic Analyses of Disaster Impacts: Disasters often result in calls for more holistic or integrated assessment and management. While intuitively sound, there has been an uncritical acceptance that reductionism and the subsequent aggregation of more considerations will enable better management. In addition, calls for interdisciplinary or holistic analyses do not account for the data and resource limitations that frame assessment of disaster impacts. There is a growing need to reconceptualise how secondary, ‘intangible’ or cumulative impacts are incorporated into calculations and management. Relying heavily on complexity theory, network approaches and interdisciplinarity, this theme runs throughout my research but is particularly pertinent for the Portuguese project.
- Participation as a Means of Management: My research has always sought to connect academic study with practice. At present, this interface is dominated by discussion and advocacy for participation and empowerment. Both in the developing and developed world, it is presumed that involvement will strengthen management and overcome an impasse between the government and public. The underlying assumption – that democracy is the best form of management – carries important and largely unexamined implications for environmental hazards management. When combined with the widely held belief that all development has ‘winners’ and ‘losers,’ the self-interest of stakeholders deserves consideration. There is no doubt that stakeholder involvement is an important element of environmental management, and that controversy is likely to increase with climate and social change, but the reliance on stakeholder perception requires further critical theorisation and debate in order to improve integrated management.
Links between research and policy
These are of critical importance to Brian. He describes them thus:
“My research has always involved managers and practitioners either as participants or advisors. I believe that this approach has enabled me to maintain a position grounded in the practical challenges facing policy makers. I remain in contact with the participants from my MA and PhD and look forward to future collaborations. The work in Portugal has already identified interested local authorities and I plan to interview the mayor of Salema in the new year when I revisit the field site. I hope to maintain this policy relevance in my future research.”
Research Conferences
January 2010 International Workshop: Along with four faculty of the IHRR, I co-organised an international workshop focused on Water & Vulnerability funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies, the Institute of Hazard and Risk Research and Durham University. From the outset, the project sought to attract leading academics, insurers, engineers and government and NGO managers to come together in a collaborative environment to discuss common themes in water and risk management.
December 2008 Workshop: I have co-organised a workshop on interdisciplinary research that has attracted both social and natural scientists. It was designed to encourage participation and debate to critically discuss the possible benefits and acknowledged difficulties associated with the concept of interdisciplinarity.
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