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.
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