What is a Disaster?

What is a Disaster? sets out the huge conceptual differences that exist concerning what a disaster is, and presents important implications for both theory, study and practice.
Are conflict situations such as the ethnic clashes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, terrorist attacks and riots, the same kind of social crises as those generated by natural and technological happenings such as earthquakes and chemical explosions? Are they both disasters and what practical or theoretical difference does it make if the same label is applied or not applied in different situations? In this text social science disaster researchers from six different disciplines advance their views on what a disaster is, giving reasons for taking different perspectives, and suggesting implications for taking one view over another. A reaction paper to each set of views is presented by an experienced disaster researcher; in turn, the original authors provide a response to what has been said. It sets out the conceptual differences that exist concerning what a disaster is, and presents implications for both theory, study and practice. Views range from a continuation of the traditional approach to disasters where knowledge about social behaviour is sought through an objective scientific framework, to using a postmodernist framework contend that behavioural aspects of disasters can only be understoo