Disaster studies inside out.

JC Gaillard

Published 2019 in Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management

ABSTRACT

Disaster studies is faced with a fascinating anomaly: frequently it claims to be critical and innovative, as suggested by the so-called vulnerability paradigm that emerged more than 40 years ago, yet often it is perpetuating some of the core and problematic tenets of the hazard paradigm that we were asked to challenge initially. This paper interrogates why such an anomaly persists. In so doing, it employs Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony to unpack why disaster studies is still dominated by Western epistemologies and scholars that perpetuate an orientalist view of disasters. Ultimately, it suggests a research agenda for the 40 years to come, which builds on the importance of local researchers analysing local disasters using local epistemologies, especially in the non-Western world. Such subaltern disaster studies are to be fuelled by increasing consciousness of the need to resist the hegemony of Western scholarship and to relocate disaster studies within the realm of its original political agenda.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2019

  • Venue

    Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management

  • Publication date

    2019-04-01

  • Fields of study

    Political Science, Sociology, Medicine, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar, PubMed

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