Disaster+Studies

Within the past two decades, and especially after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, “disaster research,” including social scientific studies of disasters, has emerged especially within the United States as a major interdisciplinary field, one which has gained visibility in numerous public policy domains including public health, homeland security, and environmental policy (for example, Erikson 1994; Barry 1998; and Mileti 1999 for early foundational works; Klinenberg 2002; Birkland 2006; Steinberg 2006; Brinkley 2007 since 9/11). However, as Kathleen Tierney notes in her 2007 review essay, there remain opportunities for further integration of this literature with other literatures and broader conceptual developments in sociology. Our survey of the review essays in other social scientific disciplines (Oliver-Smith 1996; Gilk 2007; Comfort 2005) also suggests that the integration and internal coherence of social scientific studies of disaster are still in the formative stages, and would benefit from organized conversations designed to span different disciplinary approaches to the study of large-scale disasters.


 * References**
 * Barry, John M. 1997. //Rising tide: the great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America// (New York, Simon & Schuster).
 * Birkland, Thomas A. 2006. //Lessons of disaster: policy change after catastrophic events// (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press).
 * Comfort, Louise K. 2005. Risk, security, and disaster management. //Annual review of political science// 8:335-356.
 * Brinkley, Douglas G. //The great deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast// (New York: Morrow 2006).
 * Erikson, Kai. 1994. //A new species of trouble: explorations in disaster, trauma, and community// (New York: W. W. Norton).
 * Glik, Deborah C. 2007. Risk communication for public health emergencies. //Annual review of public health// 28:33-54.
 * Klinenberg, Eric. 2002. //Heat wave: a social autopsy of disaster in Chicago// (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
 * Mileti, Dennis. 1999. //Disasters by design: a reassessment of natural hazards in the United States// (Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press).
 * Oliver-Smith, Anthony. 1996. Anthropological research on hazards and disasters. //Annual review of anthropology// 25:303-328.
 * Steinberg, Theodore. 2006. //Acts of god: the unnatural history of natural disaster in America// (New York: Oxford University Press).
 * Tierney, Kathleen J. 2007. From the margins to the mainstream? Disaster research at the crossroads. //Annual review of sociology// 33:503-525.