Especially in an era of rapid global environmental change, questions and issues about and around natural hazards and disasters are dizzying in their complexity—and urgency. Answering the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of this fast-moving area, and its vast and multidisciplinary corpus of scholarly literature, Disaster Risk is a new title from the acclaimed Routledge series, Critical Concepts in the Environment. Edited by a trio of expert researchers, this new collection of major works embraces a wide variety of methodological traditions to bring together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship. The collection enables users to access—and to make sense of—the most important research and practice. It provides a synoptic view of all the key issues, current debates, and controversies.
Disaster Risk is fully indexed and includes comprehensive introductions, newly written by the editors, which place the collected materials in their historical and intellectual context. It is an essential reference collection and is destined to be valued by scholars and students—as well as policy-makers and practitioners—as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.
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Disaster Risk is edited by three leading scholars in the field: Ben Wisner, formerly Director of International Studies at California State University at Long Beach, with a long career before that in research and teaching. He is presently engaged in full-time research and writing and has recently completed a four-year project for the United Nations University on defining and managing urban social vulnerability to disasters in six megacities (Johannesburg, Tokyo, Manila, Mumbai, Mexico City, and Los Angeles). The other co-editors of this Routledge Major Works collection are J. C. Gaillard of the University of Auckland, New Zealand; and Ilan Kelman, based at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo, Norway.
Volume I: Big-Picture Views
Part 1: Definitions
1. R. W. Perry, ‘What is a Disaster?’, in H. Rodriguez, E. Quarentelli, and R. Dynes (eds.), Handbook of Disaster Research (Springer, 2007), pp. 1–15.
2. N. Ball, ‘Some Notes on Defining Disaster: Suggestions for a Disaster Continuum’, Disasters, 1979, 3, 1, 3–7.
3. K. Hewitt and I. Burton, ‘Dimensions of the Hazard Problem’ and ‘The Study of "All Hazards at a Place"’, The Hazardousness of a Place: A Regional Ecology of Damaging Events (University of Toronto Press, 1971), pp. 3–30.
4. M. H. Glantz, ‘Nine Fallacies of Natural Disaster: The Case of the Sahel’, Climatic Change, 1977, 1, 1, 69–84.
5. G. Wilches-Chaux Sena, ‘The Global Vulnerability’, in Y. Aysan and I. Davis (eds.), Disasters and the Small Dwelling (James & James, 1992), pp. 30–5.
6. D. E. Alexander, ‘Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction: An Etymological Journey’, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2013, 13, 11, 2707–16.
Part 2: Politics and Power
7. K. Hewitt, ‘The Idea of Calamity in a Technocratic Age’, in Hewitt (ed.), Interpretations of Calamity (Allen & Unwin, 1983), pp. 3–32.
8. J. K. Boyce, ‘Let them Eat Risk? Wealth, Rights and Disaster Vulnerability’, Disasters, 2000, 24, 3, 254–61.
9. L. Bondestam, ‘Understanding Hunger and Predicting Starvation’, Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 1981, 3, 4.
10. J. Copans, ‘Droughts, Famines, and the Evolution of Senegal (1966–1978)’, Mass Emergencies, 1979, 4, 87–93.
11. A. de Waal, ‘War and Famine in Africa’, IDS Bulletin, 1993, 24, 4, 33–40.
12. B. Hartmann and J. Boyce, A Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village (Zed Books, 1983), pp. 177–228 (extracts).
13. P. Susman, P. O’Keefe, and B. Wisner, ‘Global Disasters: A Radical Interpretation’, in K. Hewitt (ed.), Interpretations of Calamity from the Viewpoint of Human Ecology (Allen and Unwin, 1983), pp. 262–83.
14. R. A. Stallings, ‘Conflict in Natural Disasters: A Codification of Consensus and Conflict Theories’, Social Science Quarterly, 1988, 69, 3, 569–86.
Part 3: Culture
15. A. Oliver-Smith, ‘Theorizing Disasters: Nature, Power, and Culture’, in Oliver-Smith and S. Hoffman (eds.), Catastrophe and Culture (School of American Research Press, 2002), pp. 23–48.
16. A. I. Richards, ‘Human Relationships and Nutritive Needs’, Hunger and Work in a Savage Tribe: A Functional Study of Nutrition Among the Southern Bantu [1932] (The Free Press, 1948, pp. 24–32.
17. L. J. Carr, ‘Disaster and the Sequence-Pattern Concept of Social Change’, American Journal of Sociology, 1932, 38, 207–18.
18. D. Schneider, ‘Typhoons on Yap’, Human Organization, 1957, 16, 2, 10–15.
19. J. Anderson, ‘Cultural Adaptation to Threatened Disasters’, Human Organization, 1968, 27, 298–307.
20. W. I. Torry, ‘Natural Disasters, Social Structure and Change in Traditional Societies’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 1978, 13, 3, 167–83.
21. C. Perrow, ‘Living with High-Risk Systems’, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies (Basic Books, 1984), pp. 304–52.
22. D. K. Chester, ‘The Theodicy of Natural Disasters’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 1998, 51, 4, 485–505.
23. G. Bankoff, ‘In the Eye of the Storm: The Social Construction of the Forces of Nature and the Climatic and Seismic Construction of God in The Philippines’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004, 35, 1, 91–111.
Part 4: Environment and Development
24. G. F. White, ‘Human Adjustment to Floods’ [1942], in R. Kates and I. Burton (eds.), Selected Writings of Gilbert F. White (University of Chicago Press, 1986), pp. 10–25.
25. F. Cuny, ‘Conceptualizing Disaster Recovery’, Disasters and Development (Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 197–203.
26. A. Lavell, ‘The Impact of Disasters on Development Gains: Clarity or Controversy’ (paper presented at the IDNDR Programme Forum, Geneva, 5–9 July 1999).
27. C. G. Flint and A. E. Luloff, ‘Natural Resource-Based Communities, Risk, and Disaster: An Intersection of Theories’, Society and Natural Resources, 2005, 18, 5, 399–412.
28. J. Spillius, ‘Natural Disaster and Political Crisis in a Polynesian Society: An Exploration of Operational Research’, Human Relations, 1957, 10, 1, 3–27.
29. R. W. Kates, ‘Experiencing the Environment as Hazard’, in S. Wapner, S. Cohen, and B. Kaplan (eds.), Experiencing the Environment (Plenum Press, 1976), pp. 133–56.
30. E. Waddell, ‘The Hazards of Scientism: A Review Article’, Human Ecology, 1977, 5, 1, 69–76.
Volume II: Fine-Grained Views
Part 5: Livelihoods and Resources
31. A. Sen, ‘Ingredients of Famine Analysis: Availability and Entitlements’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1981, 96, 3, 433–64.
32. R. Chambers, ‘Vulnerability, Coping and Policy’, IDS Bulletin, 1989, 20, 2, 1–7.
33. C. Moser, ‘Assets and Livelihoods: A Framework for Asset-Based Social Policy’, in Moser and A. Dani (eds.), Assets, Livelihoods and Social Policy (The World Bank, 2008), pp. 43–81.
34. D. Sanderson, ‘Cities, Disasters and Livelihoods’, Environment and Urbanization, 2000, 12, 2, 93–102.
35. J. Twigg, ‘Sustainable Livelihoods and Vulnerability to Disasters’ (Working Paper 2/2001, Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre, University College London, 2001).
Part 6: Communities and Civil Society
36. J. Twigg, ‘The Age of Accountability? Future Community Involvement in Disaster Reduction’, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 1999–2000, 14, 4, 51–8.
37. K. Haynes, J. Barclay, and N. Pidgeon, ‘The Issue of Trust and its Influence on Risk Communication During a Volcanic Crisis’, Bulletin of Volcanology, 2008, 70, 605–21.
38. M. Petal, R. Green, I. Kelman, R. Shaw, and A. Dixit, ‘Community-Based Construction for Disaster Risk Reduction’, in L. L. Bosher (ed.), Hazards and the Built Environment (Taylor and Francis, 2008), pp. 191–217.
39. B. Wisner and B. Haghebaert, ‘Friendly Enemies and Fierce Friends: State/Civil Society Relations in Disaster Risk Reduction’, Sixth ProVention Consortium Forum, Session 4 Discussion Paper (Geneva: ProVention Consortium, 2006).
Part 7: Capacities
40. M. B. Anderson and P. J. Woodrow, ‘Reducing Vulnerability to Drought and Famine: Developmental Approaches to Relief’, Disasters, 1991, 15, 1, 43–54.
41. Z. Delica-Willison and R. Willison, ‘Vulnerability Reduction: A Task for the Vulnerable People Themselves’, in G. Bankoff, G. Frerks, and D. Hilhorst (eds.), Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People (Earthscan, 2004), pp. 145–58.
42. A. Heijmans, ‘From Vulnerability to Empowerment’, in G. Bankoff, G. Frerks, and D. Hilhorst (eds.), Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People (Earthscan, 2004), pp. 115–27.
43. L. Peek, ‘Children and Disasters: Understanding Vulnerability, Developing Capacities, and Promoting Resilience—An Introduction’, Children, Youth and Environments, 2008, 18, 1, 1–29.
44. M. Fordham, ‘The Intersection of Gender and Social Class in Disaster: Balancing Resilience and Vulnerability’, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 1999, 17, 15–37.
45. C. Pincha and H. Krishna, ‘Aravanis: Voiceless Victims of the Tsunami’, Policy and Practice Notes, 2008, 41, 41–3.
46. J. I. Kailes and A. Enders, ‘Moving Beyond "Special Needs": A Function-Based Framework for Emergency Management and Planning’, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 2007, 17, 4, 230–7.
47. S. Levine, A. Pain, S. Bailey, and L. Fan, ‘The Relevance of "Resilience"?’, HPG Policy Briefs 49 (Overseas Development Institute, London, 2012).
Part 8: Vulnerabilities
48. P. O’Keefe, K. Westgate, and B. Wisner, ‘Taking the Naturalness Out of Natural Disasters’, Nature, 1976, 260, 566–7.
49. P. Timmerman, ‘Vulnerability’, Resilience and the Collapse of Society: A Review of Models and Possible Climatic Applications (Environmental Monograph No. 1, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, 1981), pp. 1–42.
50. S. Jeffery, ‘The Creation of Vulnerability to Natural Disaster: Case Studies from the Dominican Republic’, Disasters, 1982, 6, 1, 38–43.
51. M. Bhatt, ‘Can Vulnerability be Understood?’, in J. Twigg and M. Bhatt (eds.), Understanding Vulnerability: South Asian Perspectives (Duryog Nivaran & Intermediate Technology Publications, 1998), pp. 68–77.
52. M. J. Watts and H. G. Bohle, ‘The Space of Vulnerability: The Causal Structure of Hunger and Famine’, Progress in Human Geography, 1993, 17, 1, 43–67.
53. D. Etkin, ‘Risk Transference and Related Trends: Driving Forces Towards More Mega-Disasters’, Environmental Hazards, 1999, 1, 2, 69–75.
54. J. C. Gaillard and F. Navizet, ‘Prisons, Prisoners and Disaster’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2012, 1, 1, 33–43.
55. E. Enarson and B. H. Morrow, ‘Why Gender? Why Women? An Introduction to Women and Disaster’, in E. Enarson and B.Morrow (eds.), The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women’s Eyes (Praeger, 1998), pp. 1–8.
56. E. B. Ngo, ‘When Disasters and Age Collide: Reviewing Vulnerability of the Elderly’, Natural Hazards Review, 2001, 2, 80–9.
57. B. Wisner, ‘Marginality and Vulnerability: Why the Homeless in Tokyo don't "Count" in Disaster Preparations’, Applied Geography, 1998, 18, 1, 25–33.
Volume III: Knowledge and Wisdom
Part 9: Whose Knowledge
58. E. Quarantelli and R. Dynes, ‘When Disaster Strikes (It isn’t Much Like What You’ve Read About)’, Psychology Today, February 1972, 67–70.
59. A. Maskrey, ‘Community Based Hazard Mitigation’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Disaster Mitigation Program Implementation (Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 12–16 November 1984), pp. 25–39.
60. J. Mercer, I. Kelman, L. Taranis, and S. Suchet-Pearson, ‘Framework for Integrating Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction’, Disasters, 2010, 34, 1, 214–39.
61. Y. Ogawa, A. L. Fernandez, and T. Yoshimura, ‘Town Watching as a Tool for Citizen Participation in Developing Countries: Applications in Disaster Training’, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 2005, 23, 2, 5–36.
Part 10: Knowledge for Whom
62. R. Chambers, ‘All Power Deceives’, IDS Bulletin, 1994, 25, 2, 14–26.
63. F. P. Kilpatrick, ‘Problems of Perception in Extreme Situations’, Human Organization, 1957, 16, 2, 20–2.
64. B. Wisner, P. O’Keefe, and K. Westgate, ‘Global Systems and Local Disasters: The Untapped Power of Peoples’ Science’, Disasters, 1977, 1, 1, 47–57.
65. J. Scanlon and A. Frizzell, ‘Old Theories Don’t Apply: Implications of Communication in Crisis’, Disasters, 1979, 3, 3, 315–19.
66. World Disasters Report 2005, ‘Data or Dialogue? The Role of Information in Disasters’.
67. G. Bankoff, ‘Rendering the World Unsafe: "Vulnerability" as Western Discourse’, Disasters, 2001, 25, 1, 19–35.
68. B. Cooke and U. Kothari, ‘The Case for Participation as Tyranny’, in B. Cooke and U. Kothari (eds.), Participation: The New Tyranny? (Zed Books, 2001), pp. 1–15.
Part 11: Quantifying and Interpreting
69. B. V. Shah, ‘Is the Environment Becoming More Hazardous? A Global Survey 1947 to 1980’, Disasters, 1983, 7, 3, 202–9.
70. A. M. R. Chowdhury, A. U. Bhuyia, A. Y. Choudhury, and R. Sen, ‘The Bangladesh Cyclone of 1991: Why So Many People Died’, Disasters, 1993, 17, 4, 291–304.
71. S. Hoffman, ‘The Hidden Victims of Disaster’, Environmental Hazards, 2003, 5, 67–70.
72. D. Mustafa, S. Ahmed, E. Saroch, and H. Bell, ‘Pinning Down Vulnerability: From Narratives to Numbers’, Disasters, 2011, 35, 1, 62–86.
Part 12: Crossing Knowledge Boundaries
73. G. F. White, R. W. Kates, and I. Burton, ‘Knowing Better and Losing Even More: The Use of Knowledge in Hazards Management’, Environmental Hazards, 2001, 3, 81–92.
74. V. Garcia-Acosta, ‘Historical Perspectives in Risk and Disaster Anthropology: Methodological Approaches’, Relaciones, 2004, 97, 25, 125–42.
75. C. Gilbert, ‘Studying Disaster: A Review of the Main Conceptual Tools’, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 1995, 13, 3, 231–40.
76. J. L. Demuth, E. Gruntfest, R. E. Morss, S. Drobot, and J. K. Lazo, ‘WAS*IS: Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science’, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2007, 88, 1729–37.
77. K. Donovan, J. D. Sidaway, and I. Stewart, ‘Bridging the Geo-Divide: Reflections on an Interdisciplinary (ESRC⁄NERC) Studentship’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2011, 36, 9–14.
Part 13: Extracting Wisdom: A Triptych
78. L. von Mises, ‘Certainty and Uncertainty’, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method (Van Nostrand, 1962), pp. 62–72.
79. E. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth (W. W. Norton, 2006), pp. 3–36.
80. T. Nhat Hanh, ‘We Are the Earth’, Love Letter to the Earth (Parallax Press, 2013), pp. 8–21.
Volume IV: Having Influence
Part 14: Influencing Policy
81. M. Anderson, ‘Framework for Analyzing Aid’s Impact on Conflict’, Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace—Or War (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999), pp. 67–76.
82. A. Oliver-Smith, ‘Successes and Failures in Post-Disaster Resettlement’, Disasters, 1991, 15, 1, 12–23.
82. A. Taylor and F. Cuny, ‘The Evaluation of Humanitarian Assistance’, Disasters, 1979, 3, 1, 37–42.
84. P. Walker, B. Wisner, J. Leaning, and L. Minear, ‘Smoke and Mirrors: Deficiencies in Disaster Funding’, British Medical Journal, 2005, 330, 247–50.
85. D. Hilhorst and B. J. Jansen, ‘Humanitarian Space as Arena: A Perspective on the Everyday Politics of Aid’, Development and Change, 2010, 41, 6, 1117–39.
86. I. Christoplos, ‘The Elusive "Window of Opportunity" for Risk Reduction in Post-Disaster Recovery’, Discussion Paper, ProVention Consortium Forum, Strengthening Global Collaboration in Disaster Risk Reduction, Bangkok, 2–3 February 2006.
87. A. Holloway, ‘Crafting Disaster Risk Science: Environmental and Geographical Science Sans Frontiers’, Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 2009, 2, 98–118.
Part 15: Influencing Practice
88. D. Alexander, ‘From Civil Defence to Civil Protection and Back Again’, Disaster Prevention and Management, 2002, 11, 3, 209–13.
89. I. Davis, ‘Filling the Gap’, Shelter After Disaster (Oxford Polytechnic Press, 1978), pp. 33–67.
90. C. Green, D. Parker, and E. Penning-Rowsell, ‘Designing for Failure’, in P. Merriman and C. Browitt (eds.), Natural Disasters: Protecting Vulnerable Communities (Thomas Telford, 1993), pp. 78–91.
91. I. Burton, ‘Forensic Disaster Investigations in Depth: A New Case Study Model’, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 2010, 52, 5, 36–41.
92. G. Wilches-Chaux, ‘The Reconstruction Program Developed in Popayan by a Professional Training Institution’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Disaster Mitigation Program Implementation (Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 12–16 November 1984), pp. 291–305.
Part 16: Influencing Society and Culture
93. S. H. Prince, ‘Catastrophe and Social Change’ (PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1920), pp. 118–40.
94. T. E. Drabeck and E. L. Quarantelli, ‘Scapegoats; Villains; and Disasters’, Trans-action, March 1967, 12–17.
95. C. Starr and C. Whipple, ‘Risks of Risk Decisions’, Science, 1980, 208, 4448, 1114–19.
96. P. Winchester, ‘Cyclone Mitigation, Resource Allocation and Post-Disaster Reconstruction in South India: Lessons from Two Decades of Research’, Disasters, 2000, 241, 18–37.
97. R. S. Olson, J. P. Sarmiento, and G. Hoberman, ‘Establishing Public Accountability, Speaking Truth to Power and Inducing Political Will for Disaster Risk Reduction: "Ocho Rios + 25"’, Environmental Hazards, 2011, 10, 1 59–68.
98. J. Lewis, ‘The Worm in the Bud: Corruption, Construction and Catastrophe’, in L. Bosher (ed.), Hazards and the Built Environment: Attaining Built-in Resilience (Routledge, 2008), pp. 238–63.
