Disaster Studies - SAGE Publications

1 2011 The Author(s) 2011 ISA (Editorial Arrangement of )Michael K Lindell, 2011, Disaster Studies , , DOI: of Disaster researchAlthough historical and literary accounts of disastersdate back thousands of years, scientific analyses aremore recent. Dynes (2000) contends that Rousseauprovided the first social scientific insights into disasterwith his observation that the impacts of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake would have been diminished if thecity had been less densely populated and if people hadevacuated promptly in response to the initial than 150 years later, William James s (1983)observations in San Francisco immediately after the1906 earthquake also anticipated important themes oflater research by reporting improvisation ( the rapidi-ty of the improvisation of order out of chaos , p. 336)and emergent organization ( within twenty fourhours, rations, clothing, hospital, quarantine, disin-fection, washing, police, military, quarters in campand in houses, printed information, employment, allwere provided for under the care of so many volunteercommittees , p.)

2 337). Nonetheless, the first systemat-ic Disaster research is generally acknowledged to beSamuel Prince s (1920) study of the 1917 Halifaxexplosion (Scanlon, 1988). This study documentedthe presence of convergence and emergence, as well asthe absence of role abandonment. As Quarantelli(2000) noted, little additional progress was made indisaster research until the National Opinion ResearchCenter/National Academy of Sciences Studies of the1950s, whose findings were first summarized by Fritzand Marks (1954) and Fritz (1961), received moreextensive treatment in Baker and Chapman (1962)and were the subject of a systematic analysis in Barton(1969). Other classic works of the 1950s are alsoreviewed in the International Journal of MassEmergencies and Disasters, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1988. Drabek(1986) and Tierney et al.

3 (2001) provided later sum-maries of this research. Tierney et al. (2001: 234 40)and CDRSS (2006: Ch. 8) describe the institutionalcontext of Disaster definitionsDefinitions of Disaster can be classified into three cat-egories classic, hazards/disasters and socially focused(Perry, 2006). According to Fritz (1961: 655), a disas-ter is an event concentrated in time and space, inwhich a society or one of its subdivisions undergoesphysical harm and social disruption, such that all orDisaster studiesMichael K Lindell Texas A&M University, USAabstractDisaster Studies address the social and behavioral aspects of sudden onset collective stress sit-uations typically referred to as mass emergencies or disasters. These situations can be created by naturalhazards, technological accidents, violent intergroup conflicts, shortages of vital resources, and other majorhazards to life, health, property, well-being and everyday routines.

4 Disaster Studies address the impacts ofthese events on all social units ranging from individuals and households to nation-states. All aspects of thelife history of such events, both actual and threatened, are examined in terms of the ways in which pop-ulations at risk conduct hazard and vulnerability analyses as well as plan and implement mitigation, pre-paredness, response and recovery actions. keywordsconvergence ucrisis udisaster uemergence uemergency uimprovisation umitigation upreparedness urecovery uresponse uvulnerability2 LindellDisaster studiessome essential functions of the society or subdivisionare impaired . Physical harm and social disruption(now more commonly labeled physical and socialimpacts) occur because the event exceeds normalprotections (Kreps, 1984). The requirement that anevent be concentrated in time and space is essentialto distinguish between earthquake deaths that mightnumber as few as 50 deaths in a matter of minutesfrom automobile fatalities that number approxi-mately 40,000 per year in the US, for Disaster s concentration in time obviouslydefines three temporal periods pre-impact, trans-impact and post-impact.

5 However, some disastershave multiple ( earthquake aftershocks) or sec-ondary ( hazardous materials releases) impacts, soidentifying the time at which impact occurs can bedifficult. An alternative conception of Disaster phas-es is defined in terms of hazard mitigation, disasterpreparedness, emergency response and disasterrecovery (National Governors Association, 1978).However, these terms are not accepted worldwideand, in any event, are functions rather than , they are not mutually exclusive becausemitigation and preparedness generally take placeconcurrently in the pre-impact period. There are alsooverlaps in the post-impact period, with some neigh-borhoods of a Disaster -stricken community conduct-ing emergency response operations while others areinitiating Disaster recovery. Finally, mitigation is fre-quently implemented during the Disaster Disaster s concentration in space defines a seriesof geographical areas that Figure 1 identifies as aseries of (idealized) concentric zones that defineimpact and response (Wallace, 1956).

6 In practice,these impact zones are more elusive than they , impact boundaries do not follow neat circlesbecause the severity of building damage after anearthquake, for example, depends on the structuralresilience of buildings and the intensity of earth-quake shaking neither of which is uniformly dis-tributed so the boundaries of the damage area can beextremely irregular. Moreover, casualties are com-plexly determined, as are social impacts, which canextend far beyond the boundaries of the damagezone. For example, earthquake damage can cause aloss of electric power in areas where there is no phys-ical damage. Thus, defining impact zone boundariespresents a significant problem for researchers study-ing response as well as practitioners trying to assesswhere Disaster impacts have actually happened, letalone trying to predict where they will society s subdivisions encompass a wide rangeof social units arrayed in overlapping social, econom-ic and political sectors.

7 Thus, individuals are includ-ed within households that are in neighborhoodswithin communities. Businesses are included withinindustries that are in economic sectors, and localjurisdictions are contained within states/provincesthat are in nations (see Lindell et al., 2006: Ch. 2).A major challenge to understanding Disaster impactsis that social units such as communities are nothomogeneous, so subunits such as households andbusinesses vary in their vulnerability to disasterimpacts. This has given rise to an expanding litera-ture on differences in Disaster vulnerability associat-ed with demographic characteristics such as gender,ethnicity and poverty (Fothergill, 1996; Fothergilland Peek, 2004; Fothergill et al., 1999). Similarly,research into Disaster impacts on business has exam-ined variations by size and economic sector (Webb etal.)

8 , 2000; Zhang et al., 2009). Major methodological approaches As Stallings (2006) noted, Disaster research has beencharacterized by inductive field Studies in which oneor more researchers travel to the site of a reporteddisaster to observe behavior and conduct personalinterviews (The American Behavioral Scientist, , No. 3, 1970 contains an early summary of suchstudies). Slow onset disasters such as hurricanesmight allow researchers to observe pre-impactresponse activities but it has been more common tocollect data after a Disaster strikes. In either case,Figure 1. Disaster impact zones Source: Dynes (1970).Regional aidCommunity aidResource filterFringe impactTotal impact3 LindellDisaster studiesresearchers collect important documents and inter-view key informants who are identified by organiza-tional position or by snowball sampling.

9 In recentdecades, there has been an increasing reliance on sur-vey research (Bourque et al., 1997). In most cases,surveys have been conducted to study households warning response (Mileti and Beck, 1975; Perry etal., 1981) or perception and response to natural haz-ards (Turner et al., 1986). In both types of Studies ,the research objectives and methods of sociologistshave overlapped significantly with those of geogra-phers (White, 1974). In other cases, surveys havebeen conducted on businesses struck by disasters(Tierney et al., 1996) and emergency preparednessorganizations (Lindell et al., 1996). Occasionally, Disaster Studies have analyzed archival data (Wrightet al., 1979). Disaster impacts modelThe basic framework of Disaster research can be sum-marized in Figure 2, which indicates that the effectsof a Disaster are determined by three pre-impact con-ditions hazard exposure, physical vulnerability andsocial vulnerability.

10 There also are three event-specif-ic conditions hazard event characteristics, impro-vised Disaster responses and improvised disasterrecovery. Two of the event-specific conditions, haz-ard event characteristics and improvised disasterresponses, combine with pre-impact conditions toproduce a Disaster s physical impacts. Physicalimpacts, in turn, combine with recovery actions toproduce a Disaster s social impacts. Communities canengage in three types of emergency managementinterventions to ameliorate Disaster impacts. Physicalimpacts can be reduced by hazard mitigation prac-tices and emergency preparedness practices, whereassocial impacts can be reduced by recovery prepared-ness practices. Of the three pre-impact conditions, hazard expo-sure arises from people s occupancy of geographicalareas where they could be affected by specific typesof events that threaten their lives or vulnerability includes human vulnerability,agricultural vulnerability and structural vulnerabili-ty.