Susanna M. Hoffman is author, co-author, and editor of twelve books, including The Angry Earth 1 & 2 and Catastrophe and Culture, two ethnographic films, and over forty articles. She initiated the Risk and Disaster Thematic Interest Group at the Society for Applied Anthropology, is the founder and chair of the Risk and Disaster Commission for the International Union of Anthropology and Ethnographic Sciences, and was the first recipient of the Aegean Initiative Fulbright concerning the Greek and Turkish earthquakes.Roberto E. Barrios is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. During the last twenty years, he has conducted ethnographies of disaster recovery in Honduras, Mexico, New Orleans, Houston, and Southern Illinois. He is the author of Governing Affect: Neoliberalism and Disaster Reconstruction.

"The contributors, individually and collectively, do not merely point to or describe the gaps between knowledge, policy, and practice-they build sturdy bridges across them... I highly recommend this book" A.J. Faas, San Jose State University"An important contribution to the applied anthropological research on disasters for it brings together experiences and reflections of various key players in the field-anthropologists, practitioners (e.g. local and international NGO leaders, officials of various functions, and free-lance consultants), and other constituents." Qiaoyun Zhang, Shanghai University

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Defining Disaster Upon Disaster: Why Risk Prevention and Disaster Response So Often FailSusanna M. HoffmanPART I: ILLUMINATING THE FISSURES: SUPPOSITIONS, REALITIES, AGENDAS, AND EXECUTIONChapter 1. Unwieldy Disasters: Engaging the Multiple Gaps and Connections That Make CatastrophesRoberto E. BarriosChapter 2. Advocacy and Accomplishment: Contrasting Challenges to Successful Disaster Risk ManagementTerry JeggleChapter 3. Natural Hazard Events into Disasters: The Gap between Knowledge, Policy, and Practice as it Affects the Built EnvironmentStephen BenderChapter 4. Humanitarian Response: Ideals Meet RealityAdam KoonsChapter 5. Disaster Theory Versus Practice? It's a Long Rocky Road - A Practitioner's View from the GroundJane Murphy ThomasPART II: SITUATIONS AND EXPOSITIONS: PLIGHTS, PROBLEMS AND QUANDRIESChapter 6. Slow On-Set Disaster: Climate Change and the Gaps Between Knowledge, Policy, and PracticeShirley J. Fiske and Elizabeth MarinoChapter 7. Disrupting Gendered Outcomes: Addressing Disaster Vulnerability Through Stakeholder ParticipationBrenda D. PhillipsChapter 8. Resettlement for Disaster Risk Reduction: Global Knowledge, Local ApplicationAnthony Oliver-SmithChapter 9. From Nuclear Things to Things Nuclear: Minding the Gap at the Knowledge-Policy-Practice Nexus in Post-Fallout FukushimaRyo MorimotoChapter 10. "Haitians Need to be Patient"- Notes on Policy Advocacy in Washington Following Haiti's EarthquakeMark SchullerPART III: REVAMPING APPARATUS AND OUTCOMEChapter 11. The Scope and Importance of Anthropology and its Core Concept of Culture in Closing the Risk and Disaster Knowledge to Policy and Practice GapSusanna M. HoffmanChapter 12. Engaged: Applying the Anthropology of Disaster to Practitioner Settings and Policy CreationKatherine E. Browne, Elizabeth Marino, Heather Lazrus, and Keely MaxwellChapter 13. Future Matter Matters: Disasters as a (Potential) Vehicle for Social Change. It's About TimeAnn BergmanIndex