Critical Disaster Studies (Critical Studies in Risk and Disaster) Paperback ? July 30, 2021

ISBN 10: 0812224825 / ISBN 13: 9780812224825

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 379280934

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Critical Disaster Studies (Critical Studies in Risk and Disaster) Paperback ? July 30, 2021
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812224825
• ISBN 13: 9780812224825
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book announces the new, interdisciplinary field of critical disaster studies. Unlike most existing approaches to disaster, critical disaster studies begins with the idea that disasters are not objective facts, but rather are interpretive fictions—and they shape the way people see the world. By questioning the concept of disaster itself, critical disaster studies reveals the stakes of defining people or places as vulnerable, resilient, or at risk.

As social constructs, disaster, vulnerability, resilience, and risk shape and are shaped by contests over power. Managers and technocrats often herald the goals of disaster response and recovery as objective, quantifiable, or self-evident. In reality, the goals are subjective, and usually contested. Critical disaster studies attends to the ways powerful people often use claims of technocratic expertise to maintain power.
Moreover, rather than existing as isolated events, disasters take place over time. People commonly imagine disasters to be unexpected and sudden, making structural conditions appear contingent, widespread conditions appear local, and chronic conditions appear acute. By placing disasters in broader contexts, critical disaster studies peels away that veneer.

With chapters by scholars of five continents and seven disciplines, Critical Disaster Studies asks how disasters come to be known as disasters, how disasters are used as tools of governance and politics, and how people imagine and anticipate disasters. The volume will be of interest to scholars of disaster in any discipline and especially to those teaching the growing number of courses on disaster studies.

About the Author

Andy Horowitz is Assistant Professor of History and the Paul and Debra Gibbons Professor in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. Jacob A. C. Remes is Clinical Associate Professor of History at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University.