There Is No Such Thing as Natural Disasters: Key Approaches in Social Studies of Disasters

Abstract

In the face of anthropogenic climate change, disasters are becoming more frequent and causing significant damage to communities around the world. Since the second half of the twentieth century, social scientists have been developing critical studies of disasters triggered by natural phenomena such as droughts, earthquakes, floods, storms, landslides, and wildfires. By now, a rich interdisciplinary field with a range of conceptual and thematic directions has emerged. In Russia, disaster studies are in a peripheral position in social sciences. This article aims to introduce this research field and explore its analytical perspectives. We outline the history of field’s institutionalization, discuss the current state of disaster research, and provide an overview of the dominant approaches, highlighting their strengths and limitations. In the review, we build on the conventional understanding of disaster as a product of natural and social relations and pay particular attention to the concept of “vulnerability,” emergence of which marked a paradigm shift in the field in the late 1970s. The review covers the following thematic areas: (1) socio-spatial distribution of vulnerability, (2) social inequalities as a source of vulnerability, (3) disaster governance, (4) discursive construction of disasters, (5) cultures of disasters, (6) built environment and disaster architecture, and (7) disasters as assemblages. Each approach is accompanied by empirical evidence from various regional contexts. In conclusion, we present a list of six key principles guiding contemporary disaster studies.

Text in Russian