Disasters: A Sociological Approach

by Kathleen Tierney

Disasters kill, maim, and generate increasingly large economic losses. But they do not wreak their damage equally across populations, and every disaster has social dimensions at its very core. This important book sheds light on the social conditions and on the global, national, and local processes that produce disasters. Topics covered include the social roots of disaster vulnerability, exposure to natural hazards such as hurricanes and tsunamis as a form of environmental injustice, and emerging threats. Written by a leading expert in the field, this book provides the necessary frameworks for understanding hazards and disasters, exploring the contributions of very different social science fields to disaster research and showing how these ideas have evolved over time. Bringing the social aspects of recent devastating disasters to the forefront, Tierney discusses the challenges of conducting research in the aftermath of disasters and critiques the concept of disaster resilience, which has come to be seen as a key to disaster risk reduction. Peppered with case studies, research examples, and insights from very different disciplines, this rich introduction is an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in the social nature of disasters and their relation to broader social forces.

Genres: Sociology

224 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2019

About the author

Kathleen Tierney is the pen name of author Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a great introduction/overview of all things ~Disaster Studies~. Recommend for students, people new to the field.

[Judd Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Disasters: A Sociological Approach" is a thoughtful, if somewhat eclectic, introduction to the human side of disasters. Written by Kathleen Tierney, a giant in the field of disaster studies (directing both the Delaware and Boulder centres, which can be regarded as the two most influential disaster research shops in the US), the book does a solid job of making the case for seeing disasters in a very human light.

I found the volume to bounce around a little in terms of type of contribution and, particularly, who the potential audience is for the text. The second chapter forms an /exceptional/ review of the history of disaster research and, to me, is the standout highlight of the book and something I'd put on a PhD comprehensive exam list. The fifth chapter is a decent overview of some of the things that make sociological research of disasters distinct from other forms of sociological inquiry, but is likely something I'd use in a methods class. And, chapters two and three (different disciplinary contributions; different core theories) and six and seven (vulnerability; resilience) are chapters I'd be more likely to use in an undergraduate class. As such, I'm not sure I'd ever really be able to assign this text in a single class, but rather would likely choose 1-2 chapters each for a variety of courses. This makes it feel a little less coherent as a single volume, which was a little frustrating as a reader, but it does mean that the chapters can be very effective for different audiences.

That second chapter on the history of disaster research is worth particular commendation. As a scholar, Tierney is interested in the social production of disaster, and to turn that sort of a perspective on the disaster research enterprise itself is fruitful. And, because Tierney has had such a front row seat to disaster studies, directing two of the most major centres, it's all the more impressive that she can combine this experience with a perspective that is at least somewhat critical of what each intellectual tradition has achieved (and hasn't). If you only read one chapter from the volume, make it this.

I do think there are a couple of places where this volume is a little weaker. While Tierney is decent at providing an account of disaster research in the US, the book overall does lean heavily American and lacks in both the global context and appreciation of work done in disaster studies globally. There are certainly references to global examples, but they're hardly proportional. And, for a scholar who is so intrigued by the social production of disasters (which she sees as the ways human decisions and systems create disaster conditions and differentiates from the social construction of disasters, which is the ways in which disasters as subjectively interpreted and sociologically constructed as a concept), I find the emphasis on production and seeming disinterest in construction to be unbalanced. It leads, in my view, to the very weaknesses she sometimes critiques in terms of disaster studies failing to adequately attend to power and politics in disasters - a topic which absolutely requires understanding their socially constructed nature in a rich way.

That said, the volume is good overall, if uneven in audience between chapters. I'd recommend it, though likely individual chapters in individual contexts. But, do read the history one.

[Serena Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

review to follow