This edited book establishes a justice‑oriented agenda for understanding and acting on disasters in the world’s most hazard‑exposed regions. Challenging technocratic and event‑centred framings, the volume theorises disasters as historically produced and politically mediated, tracing how colonialism, capitalism, extractivism, and uneven governance create and compound risk. Across four parts—foundations; (re)conceptualising disasters; methods; and critical voices from the field—the chapters develop key ideas such as critical vulnerability, structural/prospective amnesia, and disaster populism; advance plural, decolonising methodologies (including talanoa, autoethnography and co‑production of knowledge); and offer grounded cases from Aotearoa New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Rapa Nui, Chile, Vietnam and the Pacific. In doing so, Critical Disaster Studies in Asia and the Pacific centres Indigenous and local epistemologies, Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI)‑informed practice, and systems-behaviour models for transformative disaster risk reduction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars across disciplines, this is an indispensable resource for researchers, practitioners and policymakers seeking to move from managing hazards to transforming the conditions that generate disaster risk.

This edited book establishes a justice‑oriented agenda for understanding and acting on disasters in the world’s most hazard‑exposed regions. Challenging technocratic and event‑centred framings, the volume theorises disasters as historically produced and politically mediated, tracing how colonialism, capitalism, extractivism, and uneven governance create and compound risk. Across four parts—foundations; (re)conceptualising disasters; methods; and critical voices from the field—the chapters develop key ideas such as critical vulnerability, structural/prospective amnesia, and disaster populism; advance plural, decolonising methodologies (including talanoa, autoethnography and co‑production of knowledge); and offer grounded cases from Aotearoa New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Rapa Nui, Chile, Vietnam and the Pacific. In doing so, Critical Disaster Studies in Asia and the Pacific centres Indigenous and local epistemologies, Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI)‑informed practice, and systems-behaviour models for transformative disaster risk reduction. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars across disciplines, this is an indispensable resource for researchers, practitioners and policymakers seeking to move from managing hazards to transforming the conditions that generate disaster risk.