A geographical ontology of the risks: two scales, three dimensions

Abstract

The debates about risks are wide and with multiple meanings. Nevertheless, in general, these do not consider the dimension of space as instituting of these phenomena, not even with the same importance of the social dimension, for example. When considered, this is usually seen as an involucre, passive to the phenomena of other dimensions. The discussion also frequently occurs in the collective level, considering a little the individual scale of phenomena occurrence. For that reason, we take the ontologic presupposition of the man-environment/society-nature relations to defend the indissociability among the social/cultural, existential/phenomenal and spatial/environmental dimensions, in their scales of analysis and experience, collective and individual, to approach the risks from a geographical perspective. Our objective is to discuss no only that these dimensions and scales are in the way to understand risks but, above all, that they are indissociably linked to the essence of urban happening, being the fundamental of a geographical ontology of the risks. Key-words: Geography of the Risks; Geographical Scales; Dimensions of Phenomena.