Disasters

Kathleen Tierney is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Director Emerita of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Kathleen Tierney is among the world’s leading disaster scholars. Her wide-ranging insights provide a tour de force on interdisciplinary disaster and hazards scholarship, ranging from its history, through foundational perspectives and theories, to concepts and practical explorations of vulnerability and resilience. She articulates the challenges facing societies today which not only produce risk but must now work towards reducing it equitably in a changing world. This book is a must read for any serious student of disasters and hazards.”Susan L. Cutter, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina“This is a very welcome new edition. It is clearly written and, although subtitled A Sociological Approach, a wide range of people from different disciplines will benefit greatly from it. The new edition has been thoroughly revised to put the theoretical content into a better sequence, and references to disasters (and literature) have been updated. It is still one of the most useful approaches to disaster studies.”Terry Cannon, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, and Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, UCL

• Detailed ContentsFigures, Tables, and BoxesAcknowledgmentsPreface to the Second Edition1 The Social Significance of Disasters       2 Disaster Research in Historical Context3 Theoretical Approaches and Perspectives in the Study of Hazards and Disasters4 Middle-Range Theory: Panic, Emergence, Self-Protective Actions, and Organizational Risk5 Disaster Vulnerability6 Disaster Resilience: Concepts, Measures, and Critiques7 Key Contributions from Other Disciplines8 Confronting Disaster Research Challenges9 What the Future Holds: Greater Risks and Impacts or Greater Coping Capacity?               NotesBibliography