Les composantes du risque: une entrée par les acteurs et le conflict lors de la mise en place des solutions. Le cas de Los Chorros, Guatemala

This work analyses a post-disaster case study from San Cristobal, Guatemala where a large landslide named “Los Chorros (8 millions cubic meters of rock) affects several communities and one of the country’s main west-east access highways. Risk managers, starting from their own assessment, decided to respond in a way that does not correspond to the interests of the affected population. Local communities assessed the risk disaster situation and established another solution from a different conception of risk. These social conflict and competition for priorities and solutions for risk management reveal that disaster risk is not unequivocal but a complex and holistic concept, constituted by a large set of components. From a social constructivism approach, where disaster risk is considered as the results of social, political, economic and historic process, this thesis evaluates other modes of interpreting, shaping and managing risk that can help improve methods of risk assessment and management. Studying the logic of action of actors, who mobilize to establish a solution, enables to identify as to what constitutes a disaster. For this reason, the study focus, in particular, on the analysis of practices (practical science) implemented by all actors in San Cristobal Altaverapaz.

Finally, it puts into perspective the risk management in terms of an integrative approach for policy experts that find compromise between different conceptions of risk in order to obtain a solution acceptable to all those involved.

Keywords: multirisk, vulnerability, risk construction, decision making, conflict, Guatemala.