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Despite growing awareness and research into experiences of gender and sexual minorities – also known as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual and other identities (LGBTQIA+) – their needs and capacities are often overlooked in crisis response and disaster risk reduction. LGBTQIA+ peoples' vulnerability is shaped by social marginalisation, discrimination, and stigma, and exacerbated by dominant value systems and Western heteronormative framings of disaster experiences. We present a review of scholarship into gender and sexual minorities and disasters. We summarise extant knowledge and identify areas for growth in the field of disaster geographies. We argue that progress requires increased conceptual and methodological focus on diversity and the intersectional factors that exacerbate marginality, more inclusive knowledge production pathways focussed on risk reduction, and establishing methods for LGBTQIA+ people to be involved in research about them. More critical and inclusive research will not only aid progress in disaster geographies; it will also provide vital evidence with which to lobby policymakers and disaster management to pay closer attention to diversity and inclusion. By moving beyond normativity, cisgender‐heterosexual assumptions, and homogenising identity labels, we can begin to address social, cultural, and political factors that determine spatial inequalities, marginalisation, and disaster vulnerability for gender and sexual minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of households are impacted by disasters due to population growth, increasing development in higher risk areas, and climate change. While emergency management in Australia aims to reduce quantifiable losses, lived disaster and recovery experiences are relatively mute, with implications for mitigation and post‐disaster support. This paper draws on findings from a research project that set out to examine the role of insurance in household recovery after the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires in New South Wales. Among the 19 interview participants, prioritisation of the needs of children was found to hinder personal recovery. Drawing on this key finding, this paper focuses on parents' emotion work and emotions surrounding home. Innate desires to provide good care monopolised parents' emotions and emotional outlets, as they worked to conceal threats and (re)establish a sense of normalcy. Emotion work drained parents, as did threats to, and the loss of, "home" created through "dwelling." When homes burnt, so too did memories of children embodied in that home – memories that had permeated the material space. This sense of loss intensified when informing children about losses – an act that breached parents' protective instincts and necessitated additional emotional care. Emotions escalated as capacities for care were challenged or eroded in the absence of home contents that normally would have anchored daily routines and provided stability. Replacing such items dominated parents' recovery efforts – efforts encumbered by competing recovery demands, yet facilitated to some degree by insurance safety‐nets. These emotions impacted parents' mental and physical wellbeing in the four years that separated the bushfires and the interviews. While there is considerable literature outlining parents' role in lessening disaster impacts on children, few studies examine parents' capacity to do so. In addressing this gap, this paper highlights avenues to improve psychosocial aspects of disaster recovery. Parenting is challenging at the best of times, let alone in disasters. Focusing on the 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires in Australia, this paper explores the emotions involved in caring for children while surviving and recovering from a disaster. Insights from "emotion work" and the loss of "home" – structures bound with memories and resources for good care – highlight both demands on parents and avenues to improve post‐disaster wellbeing for families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home and contents insurance is framed as key to Australia's national strategy for disaster resilience. Despite the perceived importance of financial indemnity, ambiguity characterises the ways in which it facilitates both short‐ and long‐term everyday household recovery when disaster strikes. Addressing such ambiguity, this article explores how insurance impacts upon households' capacities to rebuild and recover after disastrous bushfire. In‐depth interviews conducted with residents in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales four years after they were affected by the October 2013 bushfires show that insurance was fundamental to recovery. Swift claims handling and payouts allowed participants to access rental accommodation, material necessities, and sufficient finances to repair, rebuild, and refurnish their houses—essentials in restoring everyday routines and a sense of normalcy. Yet, many people were underinsured and used alternative strategies to stretch "adequate" insurance coverage, which had practical and emotional implications. Importantly, while insurance reduced post‐disaster stress and trauma, the length and depth of recovery were more closely determined by the impacts of personal and situational circumstances than by insurance. On that basis, analysis points to the conclusion that while insurance is a crucial tool for disaster resilience, greater levels of psychosocial support are needed to improve households' short‐ and longer‐term recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a gendered analysis of resident responses to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires (wildfires) in Victoria, Australia. One hundred and seventy-three people lost their lives in the bushfires and more than 2000 houses were destroyed. Previous research on Black Saturday has largely focused on issues of resident preparedness and response, with limited consideration of the role of gender in household decisions and actions. This paper examines the gendered dimensions of risk awareness, preparedness and response among households affected by the bushfires. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with over 600 survivors and a questionnaire of 1314 households in fire-affected areas. Analysis revealed that women more often wanted to leave than men, who more often wanted to stay and defend property against the bushfires. Nevertheless, findings suggest that broad-brush characterisations of staying to defend as a masculine response and leaving as a feminine response are misguided. Although some women expressed a strong desire to leave, others were resolute on staying to defend. Equally, while some men were determined to stay and defend, others had never considered it an option. Despite this, the research identified numerous instances where disagreement had arisen as a result of differing intentions. Conflict most often stemmed from men's reluctance to leave, and was most apparent where households had not adequately planned or discussed their intended responses. The paper concludes by considering the degree to which the findings are consistent with other research on gender and bushfire, and the implications for bushfire safety policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on an identified need for gender-sensitive approaches to bushfire risk engagement, this paper examines outreach initiatives specifically targeting women's bushfire awareness and preparedness in southeast Australia. The results of an online survey, together with two workshops with community engagement staff and volunteers from rural fire services, convey perceived aids and obstacles for engaging women. Efforts at engaging women with bushfire risk management are shown to align squarely with efforts to create a more gender-balanced and gender-sensitive environment for bushfire brigade volunteers. The paper demonstrates how gender roles and gendered norms are reinforced by the patriarchal structures that shape everyday life and the on-the-ground application of official outreach policy and practice. This, in turn, results in heightened dimensions of gendered vulnerability to bushfire. Three key pointers to more successful engagement emerge from the analysis: the benefits of hands-on experience and practice, the strength of networks and the imperative of supportive learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various article within the issue on topics including fire, bushfire smoke and planning regulations as mitigation strategies.

Despite the historical importance of fire as a savanna land management tool, much controversy still surrounds discussions on anthropogenic fire utilization and the sustainability of indigenous land management practices in African savannas. This controversy is arguably a result of a discord between official fire policies and actual indigenous fire practices – a discord based on a gap in existing knowledge of, and a lack of informed literature on, the importance of fire for socio-economic and environmental survival in savanna environments. Addressing a continuing lack of research on the political ecology of fire, this study investigates the historical and present day socio-economic, environmental and political frameworks that affect anthropogenic burning regimes and land management in the Kafinda Game Management Area and Kasanka National Park in Zambia. A series of participatory research activities revealed the continuing importance of fire to rural livelihoods, but that a mismatch in desired burning regimes exists between local stakeholders. The paper argues that local power relations are preventing the local communities from adopting burning regimes that would be more environmentally sustainable and more in line with present day farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]