The Social Construction of Disasters: From Heat Waves to Worst-Case Scenarios

Abstract

Opening Remarks Terrorist attacks on the United States (September 11, 2001), Madrid (March 2004), and London (July 2005); the Indian Ocean tsunami (December 2004); Hurricane Katrina (August 2005); and the Pakistan earthquake (October 2005), among others, have once again captured the interest of the international community, researchers, academics, and the media. The social science disaster research community has made important contributions to our understanding of disasters and has had a significant impact on disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery initiatives, and has managed (albeit limitedly) to bridge the gap between theory and practice. However, the massive failures in the aftermath of the tsunami and Katrina show that, to a large extent, decision-makers have ignored the extensive body of knowledge and the theoretical, methodological, and substantive contributions of disaster researchers, spanning close to five decades, with sociologists as the pioneers of this field of study. It is in this context that we have selected