Contextualizing Disaster [Hardcover]

Contextualizing Disasteroffers a comparative analysis of six recent highly visible disasters and several slow-burning, hidden, crises that include typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, chemical spills, and the unfolding consequences of rising seas and climate change. The book argues that, while disasters are increasingly represented by the media as unique, exceptional, newsworthy events, it is a mistake to think of disasters as isolated or discrete occurrences. Rather, building on insights developed by political ecologists, this book makes a compelling argument for understanding disasters as transnational and global phenomena.

Contextualizing Disaster, edited by Gregory V. Button and Mark Schuller, makes a significant contribution to a better understanding of the social construction of disasters by contextualizing them in novel and diverse ways& The eight book chapters offer new and innovative analysis of recent disasters that to varying degrees are all translocal, and each chapter is carried by its own narrative.& The book is providing fresh impetus not only for disaster scholars but also for DRR institutions and media. Anthropos

This book presents a vivid picture of extreme events and how different parties involved in the recovery process contextualize them. Arthur D. Murphy, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

This book will be read and read again. I intend to use it in my course, 'Disaster, Self, and Society,' and I suspect others, both sociologists and anthropologists, will assign it to their respective classes. Moreover, it will be read by scholars, enriching their understanding of mayhem. Well done. Steve Kroll-Smith, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Mark Schulleris Associate Professor of Anthropology and NGO Leadership and Development at Northern Illinois University and affiliate at the State UlÃ#