Disasters In Field Research

From ravenous ants and temperamental gear to debilitating illness and unpredictable politics, field research can be fraught with challenges and opportunities for mishap. Disasters in Field Research is your guide to what can go wrong while conducting fieldwork—and what you can do to avoid or minimize the impact of unexpected events. Ice, Dufour, and Stevens address the issues confronting both students and professional researchers as they embark on field research. For example, permits may be difficult to obtain—or even revoked at the last minute. Cultural differences and misunderstandings can disrupt data collection. Equipment can be held up by customs—or fail to work as expected. The authors offer practical advice on preparing for such possibilities, while active researchers from a wide array of disciplines relate, in brief first-person narratives, their own encounters with disaster, how they solved (or failed to solve) the problem, and their recommendations for avoiding similar issues in the future. Each thematic chapter concludes with strategies and suggestions for making the most of your preparations, recovering from missteps, and coping with calamity. The result is an excellent companion book for field methods courses in a variety of disciplines—and an excellent companion to carry with you into the field.

This timely Handbook is based on the principle that disasters are social constructions and focuses on social science disaster research. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to disasters with theoretical, methodological, and practical applications. Attention is given to conceptual issues dealing with the concept "disaster" and to methodological issues relating to research on disasters. These include Geographic Information Systems as a useful research tool and its implications for future research. This seminal work is the first interdisciplinary collection of disaster research as it stands now while outlining how the field will continue to grow.

The methods of disaster research are indistinguishable from those used throughout the social sciences. Yet these methods must be applied under unique circumstances. Researchers new to this field need to understand how the disaster context affects the application of the methods of research. This volume, written by some of the worlds leading specialists in disaster research, provides for the first time a primer on disaster research methods. Among the topics covered are qualitative field studies and survey research; underutilized approaches such as cross-national studies, simulations, and historical methods; and newer tools utilizing geographic information systems, the Internet, and economic modeling.

Drawing on years of experience in disaster research, the author presents a critical reflection on the challenges and opportunities of studying disasters in the field. Through case studies and conceptual discussions, this report provides a solid foundation for researchers and practitioners interested in improving the scientific rigor and social relevance of disaster studies. Anyone who cares about the human and environmental impacts of disasters will benefit from reading this insightful and thought-provoking work. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from An Introduction to Methodological Problems of Field Studies in Disasters: A Special Report Prepared for the Committee on Disaster Studies Spatial zones This report makes reference only to the Impact Zone. This, obviously, is the area where the danger and de struction occur. In many disasters, this can be divided into Total and Fringe Impact Zones. In some disasters, such as explosions and tornadoes, it is easy to define; in others. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Given the tendency of books on disasters to predominantly focus on strong geophysical or descriptive perspectives and in-depth accounts of particular catastrophes, Disaster Research provides a much-needed multidisciplinary perspective of the area. This book is is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research. The book thus provides unique insights into fourteen state-of-the-art disciplinary approaches to the understanding of disasters. The theoretical discussions as well as the diverse range of disaster cases should be of interest to both postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics, researchers and policymakers.

This timely Handbook is based on the principle that disasters are social constructions and focuses on social science disaster research. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to disasters with theoretical, methodological, and practical applications. Attention is given to conceptual issues dealing with the concept "disaster" and to methodological issues relating to research on disasters. These include Geographic Information Systems as a useful research tool and its implications for future research. This seminal work is the first interdisciplinary collection of disaster research as it stands now while outlining how the field will continue to grow.