Developing an Understanding of Disaster

Abstract

Disaster is a social product. The propensity for disaster is dependent upon the interplay between humans and their use of the physical and social world. Within this perspective disaster can be seen in broader ecological terms to be an expression of the vulnerability of human society. Vulnerability is contingent upon social pre conditions. This paper focuses on one social pre-condition: the way in which organisational arrangements for counter-disaster operations are dependent upon the prevalent attitudes of what con stitutes a disaster. It is argued that parameters need to be developed for different levels of social crisis periods, and organised counter measures need to be oriented towards these different levels. An attempt has been made to distinguish between accident, emergency, and disaster by employing a set of specific criteria.