Critical Disaster Studies

Critical disaster studies challenges the idea that disasters are objective facts and reveals the stakes of defining people or places as vulnerable, resilient, or at risk. It examines how disasters are used as tools of governance and politics and how people imagine and anticipate disasters.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 20 August 2021
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Critical Disaster Studies, a groundbreaking interdisciplinary field, challenges the notion that disasters are objective facts and reveals them as interpretive fictions that shape our perception of the world. By questioning the concept of disaster, it exposes the stakes involved in defining individuals or places as vulnerable, resilient, or at risk. As social constructs, disaster, vulnerability, resilience, and risk are shaped by power struggles, with managers and technocrats often presenting their goals as objective and self-evident. However, critical disaster studies highlights how these goals are often subjective and contested. The book explores how disasters are constructed, used as tools of governance and politics, and imagined and anticipated by people. With contributions from scholars across five continents and seven disciplines, Critical Disaster Studies offers a comprehensive exploration of the field, making it essential reading for scholars of disaster studies and those teaching courses on the topic.

Weight: 436g
Dimension: 213 x 228 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780812224825