ABSTRACT

Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area.

This book is is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research.

The book thus provides unique insights into fourteen state-of-the-art disciplinary approaches to the understanding of disasters. The theoretical discussions as well as the diverse range of disaster cases should be of interest to both postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics, researchers and policymakers.

part |30 pages

Broad perspectives

chapter |13 pages

Cracks in the past

Historical approaches to disaster research

chapter |15 pages

Theology and disaster studies

From ‘acts of God' to divine presence

part |107 pages

Societal and cultural perspectives

chapter |15 pages

Making sense of disaster

The cultural studies of disaster

chapter |16 pages

The social life of disasters

An anthropological approach

chapter |14 pages

Analysing communication processes in the disaster cycle

Theoretical complementarities and tensions

chapter |16 pages

Disaster through a gender lens

A case study from Haiti

part |50 pages

Organizational perspectives

chapter |13 pages

Disasters in the sensemaking perspective

The Præstø Fjord accident

chapter |18 pages

Transboundary crises

Organization and coordination in pandemic influenza response

part |32 pages

Disaster intervention perspectives