Linking Broad Scale Political Economic Contexts to Fine-scale Economic Consequences in Disaster Research

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Arthur D. Murphy, Professor and Department Head (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Now that it is a confirmed generalization that vulnerability to disaster impact is mediated by larger social processes, we find it compelling to link the political economy of disaster with the daily lives of individuals, households, and communities who have experienced extreme events. Because of the ubiquity of hazards and a per capita increase in disasters in some regions of the world (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2003), we are called to systematically study how societies incorporate extreme events, whether chronic or one-time/short-lived, into their social, political, and ideological structure. As ethnographers, we are interested in the daily lives of people who are impacted by disasters. As students of economic dynamics, we are specifically interested in how strategies for capital accumulation construct and distribute vulnerability to hazards and cause human disasters.

Additional Information

Publication
E. C. Jones & A. D. Murphy (Eds.), The Political Economy of Hazards and Disasters (pp. 3-10). Lanham: AltaMira Press.
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
disaster, hazard vulnerability, political economy

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