HomeDisasters, sociological questions

Disasters, sociological questions

Les catastrophes, questions sociologiques

Revue « L'Année sociologique » numéro 75-2

*  *  *

Published on Friday, December 08, 2023

Abstract

Français English

This call for papers aims to contribute to the updating and renewal of sociological reflections on Disasters, as sociological questions. By inviting the presentation of cutting-edge research in the journal founded by Emile Durkheim, this special issue of L’Année sociologique aims to contribute to an effort to structure sociological research on disasters: disasters have become a common social experience; what can the sociology of disasters tell us today? Proposals for contributions may relate to contemporary or past events. In all cases, they should be based on solid empirical material, whatever the methodology chosen (qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods). Particular attention will be paid to their ability to operationalize contemporary issues in the sociology of disasters, articulating empirical elements with theoretical reflection.

Announcement

Français English

Argument

Since 1920 and Samuel Prince’s study of the Halifax explosion (Prince, 1920), the sociology of disasters – namely the study of violent interruptions to social life due to real or anticipated death and/or material or environmental destruction (Fritz, 1961: 655) – has made significant progress. Over the course of its long, bumpy, and non-linear history, it has investigated several catastrophic phenomena (industrial accidents, terrorist attacks, epidemics, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.) highlighting their social aspects. It now constitutes a voluminous body of knowledge on the causes, social effects, and governance practices of disasters (Tierney, 2019; Giry, 2023).

This research area is now at a crossroads. While the annual incidence of disasters has increased 15-fold since 1950, research is lagging behind. In many places, data is lacking or scattered, due to insufficiently structured efforts; many results, obtained in specific locations, have yet to be replicated elsewhere. On a theoretical level, the sociology of disasters has, since the 1950s, largely remained outside the discipline’s central debates, and has contributed little to the effort to build up a general sociology (Stallings, 2002; Tierney, 2007). Recent developments, however, are attempting to systematize investigations and renew links with other branches of sociology. Many works, for example, propose intersectional approaches to vulnerability, crossing different social attributes (class, gender, race, etc.) to explain the diversity of social experience of disasters (Hartman & Squires, 2006; David & Enarson, 2012). Some works even revive the categories of classical sociology, such as those by Rebecca Elliott and Ryan Hagen, who mobilize the Durkheimian categories of “normal” and “pathological” to think about the existence of a “pathological normal” (Elliott & Hagen, 2021).

An overall movement seems to be helping to give the sociology of disasters a more central place. By inviting the presentation of cutting-edge research in the journal founded by Emile Durkheim, this special issue of L’Année sociologique aims to contribute to this effort to structure sociological research on disasters: disasters have become a common social experience; what can the sociology of disasters tell us today?

Proposals for contributions may focus (but are not limited to) one of the following four topics:

1. Revisiting the Emergent Norm Theory (ENT) and Therapeutic Community

The dominance of the “pro-social” behaviors, of mutual aid and assistance, and the strong political consensus following disasters, are now well-established findings. Explanations for this (temporary) state of communitas are less certain: they are often limited to the thesis of the “emergence of norms” in situations (Turner & Killian, 1972; Aguirre et al., 1998). Apart from several problematic points, this theory remains essentially descriptive, explaining neither the suspension of old norms nor the rise of new ones (Giry, 2023: 68). Back in the 1960s, Allen Barton defined disasters as moments of “collective stress” when a social system of relief replaces the normal social system: he suggested that, at the time of disasters, individuals strip themselves of their usual social roles to take on new ones, adapted to the emergencies of the moment (Barton, 1969). Following Lewis Killian (1952), Alice Fothergill shows, however, that certain roles, such as motherhood, are “greedy roles” in that they hinder the ability to participate in relief and reconstruction activities (Fothergill, 1999). Conversely, as James Kendra and Tricia Wachtendorf’s work on the evacuation of Manhattan Island on September 11, 2001 shows, certain social attributes and prior norms favor the assumption of rescue roles (Kendra & Wachtendorf, 2016). Beyond these few examples, work studying the moments of status change following disasters is rare. How does this transition take place? How does one become a survivor? How does one become a rescuer or emergency repairer? What are the conditions, relationships and social attributes that favor or determine entry into one of these careers?

2. Individual Trajectories and Social Stratification Following Disaster

Since the 1970s, numerous studies have highlighted the unequal distribution of afflictions during disasters, bringing to light the “vulnerabilities” induced by certain social attributes of individuals or communities, such as age, economic poverty, gender, or isolation (Cutter et al., 2003). On the other hand, and despite early intuitions, debates concerning the effect of disasters on social stratification and inequalities are much less clear-cut. While the effects on income distribution (Yamamura, 2015), gentrification and impoverishment of spaces (Gotham & Greenberg, 2014; Pais & Elliott, 2008) and wealth inequalities (Howell & Elliott, 2009; Scheidel, 2021) are relatively well documented, what do we know about the experience of disasters on intra-and intergenerational social mobility? In the vein of the work carried out on the “children of Katrina” (Fothergill & Peek, 2015), what can be said about the long-term effects of disasters on individual trajectories and biographical dynamics?

3. Sociology of Public Action in Disaster Situations: Making Normal or Abnormal

Disasters can be defined as moments of failure of organized action and public policy: it is because the protective measures put in place by communities fail to prevent disasters that they occur. Sociology of public action studies on disasters have long been concerned with how public action contributes to the production of abnormal. In recent years, however, work has turned this questioning on its head, asking how public action produces the normal and the stable. In his PhD thesis, Ryan Hagen studies the set of daily tasks performed by agents that enable the relatively continuous existence of the city of New York (Hagen, 2019). Valérie Arnhold’s work shows how the Fukushima accident was normalized by nuclear safety actors to ensure the continuity of the industry (Arnhold, 2019).These dynamics of collective production of the normal and the abnormal, through policies of risk prevention (Borraz, 2008), preparation (Collier & Lakoff, 2021), recovery (Centemeri et al., 2022) and loss (Elliott, 2021), have been the subject of stimulating work. However, many points remain to be clarified: while the actors and norms structuring the “disaster world” at international level have been well studied (Hannigan, 2013; Irwin, 2013; Revet, 2018), what diversity of local application do we observe in disaster management? How can these variations be explained? The question of the role of private economic players, for example, regularly mentioned, is only rarely studied systematically. How do companies and individuals intervene in disaster governance, outside diplomatic and humanitarian channels? What impact does this intervention have on prevention, preparedness, and repair policies? Similarly: while a few analyses highlight the deleterious effects of policies based on market mechanisms (Adams, 2013; Elliott, 2021), systematic studies are lacking: what determines recourse to the market, and what effects do market-based solutions have on the different processes (prevention, preparation, repair/loss) of disaster governance?

4. Sociology of Disasters, Methodology and Theoretical Work: Intersections

The sociology of disasters does not really present any methodological specificity: the instruments used by sociologists to study disasters are, with little variation, the same as those used in other fields of research (Mileti, 1987: 69). On the other hand, other fields of sociology sometimes make original uses of catastrophic events, as when they use them as “natural experiments” to test the existence of a hypothetical “natural resource curse” (Ramsay, 2011) or the effect of residential mobility (and therefore, the distance from an environment known to be criminogenic) on criminal recidivism (Kirk, 2009).These uses underline the potential of disaster studies for a better understanding of many social phenomena. But beyond that, doesn’t the world’s instability call into question sociological theories that postulate forms of continuity and reproduction themselves? How can we think about the social world at a time when what we classically call “institutions” – those social regularities that make the future at least partially predictable – are being put to the test by more numerous and more intense disasters? Do historical circumstances favorable to disasters also favor sociological theories emphasizing the movement and discontinuity of social life?

Submission guidelines and evaluation

Authors who wish to respond to this call for papers with a proposal for an article are requested to contact Benoit Giry (benoit.giry@sciencespo-rennes.fr) before

Monday 01/04/2024.

The proposal is an abstract of 3,000 characters and specifying the chosen axis.

The coordinator will make a selection and will communicate it to the prospective authors by the 01/05/2024 at the latest.

Subsequently, the texts in zero version - with a volume of 60,000 English characters maximum, all include - must imperatively be drafted following the instructions presented on the Journal website and sent to the Benoit Giry (benoit.giry@sciencespo-rennes.fr) before 15/09/2024.

A response will be made quickly by the coordinator so as to allow the drafting of a version 1 (amended) to be transmitted to the Editorial board’s secretary at L’Année sociologique by December 1, 2024 at the latest.

The article proposals will then be evaluated anonymously by two members of the editorial board and one external expert, with feedback scheduled for January 2025 (and a publication on Fall 2025, no 75-2).

Scientific Coordination

  • Benoit Giry (PhD), Sciences Po Rennes, Arènes (CNRS UMR 6051)

References

Adams V. [2013], Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith. Duke University Press, Durham & London.

Aguirre B. E., Wenger D., Vigo G. [1998], « A Test of the Emergent Norm Theory of Collective Behavior », Sociological Forum vol. 13 n° 2, 301-320.

Arnhold V. [2019] « L’apocalypse ordinaire. La normalisation de l’accident de Fukushima par les organisations de sécurité nucléaire », Sociologie du travail 61 (1).

Barton A. H. [1969], Communities in Disaster: A Sociological Analysis of Collective Stress Situations, Doubleday & Co, New-York.

Borraz O. [2008], Les politiques du risque, Presses de Sciences po, Paris.

Centemeri L., Topçu S., Burgess J. P. [2022], Rethinking Post-Disaster Recovery. Socio-Anthropological Perspectives on Repairing Environments, Routledge, New-York.

Collier S. J., Lakoff A. [2021]. The Government of Emergency: Vital Systems, Expertise, and the Politics of Security. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Cutter S. L., Boruff B. J., Shirley W. L. [2003], « Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards », Social Science Quarterly vol. 84 n° 2, 242-261.

David E., Enarson E. (eds) [2012], The Women of Katrina. How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster, Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.

Dedieu F. [2013], Une catastrophe ordinaire. La tempête du 27 décembre 1999, EHESS, Paris.

Elliott R. [2021], Underwater: Loss, Flood Insurance, and the Moral Economy of Climate Change in the United States. Columbia University Press, New-York.

Elliott R., Hagen R. [2021], « Disasters, Continuity, and the Pathological Normal », Sociologica vol. 15 n° 1, 1-9.

Fothergill A. [1999]. “Women’s Roles in a Disaster”. Applied Behavioral Science Review 7 (2), 125-143

Fothergill A., Peek L. [2015]. Children of Katrina. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Fritz C. E. [1961], « Disaster », in: Merton R. K., Nisbet R. A. (eds), Contemporary Social Problems, Harcourt, Brace & World, New-York, 651-694.

Giry B. [2023], Sociologie des catastrophes. La découverte, Paris.

Gotham K. F., Greenberg M. [2015]. Crisis Cities. Disaster and Redevelopment in New-York and New Orleans. Oxford University Press, New-York.

Hagen R. [2019]. “The Constant Metropolis: Disaster Risk Managers and the Production of Stability in New York City”. PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, New-York.

Hannigan J. A. [2012], Disasters Without Borders. The International Politics of Natural Disasters, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Hartman C., Squires G. D. (eds) [2006], There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina, Routledge, New-York.

Howell J., Elliott J. R. [2019]. « Damages Done: The Longitudinal Impacts of Natural Hazards on Wealth Inequality in the United States », Social Problems vol. 66 n° 3, 448-467.

Irwin J. F. [2013]. Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation's Humanitarian Awakening. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Kendra J. M., Wachtendorf T. [2016], American Dunkirk. The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Killian L. M. [1952], « The Significance of Multiple-Group Membership in Disaster », American Journal of Sociology vol. 57 n° 4, 309-314.

Kirk D. S. [2009], « A Natural Experiment on Residential Change and Recidivism: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina », American Sociological Review vol. 74, 484-505.

Mileti D. [1987] « Sociological Methods and Disaster Research », in: Dynes R. R., de Marchi B., Pelanda C. (eds.), Sociology of Disasters: Contributions of Sociology to Disaster Research, Franco Angeli, Milano, 57-69.

Pais J. F., Elliott J. R. [2008], « Places as Recovery Machines: Vulnerability and Neighborhood Change after Major Hurricanes », Social Forces vol. 86 n° 4, 1415-1453.

Prince S. H. [1920], Catastrophe and Social Change. Based Upon a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster, PhD, Columbia University.

Ramsay K. W. [2011], « Revisiting the Resource Curse: Natural Disasters, the Price of Oil, and Democracy », International Organization vol. 65 n° 3, 507-529.

Revet S. [2018], Les coulisses du monde des catastrophes « naturelles », FMSH, Paris.

Scheidel W. [2021], Une histoire des inégalités. De l’âge de pierre au XXIe siècle, Actes Sud, Paris.

Stallings R. A. [2002]. “Weberian Political Sociology and Sociological Disaster Studies”. Sociological Forum 17, 281-305.

Tierney K. J. [2007], “From the Margins to the Mainstream? Disaster Research at the Crossroads”. Annual Review of Sociology 33 (1), 503-525.

Tierney K. J. [2019]. Disasters: A Sociological Approach. Polity Press, Cambridge.

Turner R. H., Killian L. M. [1972], Collective Behavior, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

Urry J. [2011], Climate Change and Society. Polity Press, Cambridge.

Yamamura E. [2015] « The Impact of Natural Disasters on Income Inequality: Analysis using Panel Data during the Period 1970 to 2004 », International Economic Journal vol. 29 n° 3, 359-374.

Places

  • L'Année sociologique - Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université 28, rue Serpente
    Paris, France (75006)

Date(s)

  • Monday, April 01, 2024

Keywords

  • catastrophes, désastres, sociologie de l'action publique, sociologie et dynamiques biographiques, théorie sociologique

Contact(s)

  • Benoit Giry
    courriel : benoit [dot] giry [at] sciencespo-rennes [dot] fr

Information source

  • Delphine Renard
    courriel : delphine [dot] renard [at] sorbonne-universite [dot] fr

License

CC-BY-4.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .

To cite this announcement

Delphine Renard, « Disasters, sociological questions », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, December 08, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1cdd

Archive this announcement

  • Google Agenda
  • iCal
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search