Merchants of Doubt – Summary Points

š Agnotology – the study of the social

organization of ignorance

š Both Knowledge AND Ignorance are the

product of social and historical processes
š When do we choose not to know?
š How is ignorance encouraged?
š How is ignorance weaponized/used to
absolve complicity?
 Merchants of Doubt – Summary Points

š Strategies for (Not) Dealing with "Uncomfortable

Knowledge" (Norgaard, 2011)
š Denial – recognizing a threat often requires that we recognize
complicity (including our own)

š Dismissal - "available evidence is unreliable or insufficient"

š Diversion – whataboutism and/or setting up straw-man

arguments

š Displacement – e.g. technofixes over social change

 Key Terms & Definitions in Disaster Studies

š Disaster Studies: field concerned with the social and behavioral aspects of sudden onset
collective stress situations typically referred to as mass emergencies or disasters (Lindell 2013)

š Critical Disaster Studies: ditto, except, we are also concerned with interrogating the taken-for-
granted understanding of a common set of beliefs, experiences, and definitions undergirding the
field.

Blaikie, 1994
 Social Construction of Disaster

Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions:

“an event concentrated in time and

space, in which a society, or a relatively
self-sufficient subdivision of a society,
undergoes severe danger and incurs
such losses…that the social structure is
disrupted…” - Charles Fritz (1961).
 3 Core Principles of Critical
Disaster Studies

š 1). Disasters are interpretative fictions

š 2). Disasters are political

š 3). Disasters take place over space and time

(Remes & Horowitz, 2021)

Xenia, Ohio – 4/3/1973

 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Disaster Classification Metrics

š Casualties/Fatalities
š Economic Impacts
š Damage
š Long-Term Economic Impacts
š Poverty Creation
š Health Impacts
š Injuries
š Mental Health Degradation
š Household Stress
š Childhood Development
š Domestic Violence
 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Less Commonly Considered Dimensions of

Disaster:
š Cascading Effects: Current Examples (Maui
Fire, Burning Man Festival)

š Community Erosion: Recent Examples(Rolling

Fork, Mississippi)

š Challenges to Governmental Legitimacy

Recent Examples (Turkey’s post-Earthquake
election, Covid and the 2020 election)
 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

Different Scalar Assessments:

š Questions of Scale
Geographical Scale: Area Impacted
Catastrophe
Temporal Scale: Duration of Event
and Impacts, Recovery Rate

Effect Scale: Impact assessments,

intensity measurements

Response Scale: Threshold and Range

Disaster
of Responders

Emergency
Scalar measures aren’t always straightforward or immediately apparent
Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Relationship between Human and Physical

Environment

š Extreme Event: statistically rare physical

environmental event
š Extremity not a prerequisite for Disaster (e.g.,
Microbursts and Plane Crashes)

š Hazard: ongoing, endemic condition that

has the potential to trigger a disaster
š E.g., Faultline, industrial concentration
 Traditional Disaster Studies
Definitions & Concepts

š Exposure: realized hazard potential

š Vulnerability: measurable potential of
experiencing adverse impacts during and poorer
outcomes after a disaster.
š Applies to:
š Systems
š Human and Non-human animals
š The Environment

š Vulnerability is socially constructed, value-

dependent, situation contingent
Sample Question: Why do people choose to live
in hazardous locations?
Absolute & Relative
Location Variables:
Mid-Latitude &
= Hazard
Potentiality
Hazard and disaster are not synonymous

Coastal

Environmental Triggering
Mechanisms:
E.g., Ocean Heating, = Hazard
Realized

+ Proper Steering Winds, Etc.

Human Environment: = Disaster

Potentiality
+ E.g., City (Exposure)

Social Environment
& System Failure
Unpredictability compounds at each level + (Vulnerability)

Graphic by Dr. David Baylis = Disaster

 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Resilience:
š ability to
š absorb shocks
š cope with impacts
š successfully adapt or even
improve functioning

š What do we measure?
Risk: a situation or event in which
something of human value has Involuntary
been put at state and where the Delayed Consequences
outcome is uncertain Uncontrollable

(Jaeger, Renn, Rosa, Wobler, 2001).

Death Uncertain Death Certain

Chronic Catastrophic
Common Uncommon

Chart Adapted
from Gilbert White Involuntary
as appears in Paul Delayed Consequences
Robbins, 2005 Uncontrollable
 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Emergence: disaster often

engenders novel social
arrangements and responses

š Disaster Agent: actualized

hazard event that triggers a
disaster
š Disaster Agent Chains: e.g.
Fukushima, 2011
 Example: Disaster Agent Chain – Anti-Islamic Violence Rates, 2000-2001 versus 2001-2002

2000-2001 2001-2002
Lori Peek, Behind the Backlash (2010)
 Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Measuring Disaster Agent Intensity:

š Did the DA occur without warning?

š How long was the warning period?
š Duration of impact?
š Scope/scale of impact?
š Singular impact or repeating impacts?
š Is DA familiar or unfamiliar in local context?
Traditional Disaster Studies Definitions & Concepts

š Hazard Cycle: activities that can be undertaken before, during, and

immediately after disasters in order to reduce losses and hasten
recovery.

š Mitigation: e.g., zoning, buried electrical lines, wetland restoration

š Preparedness: e.g., warning systems, drills

š Response: e.g., evacuation protocol

š Recovery: e.g., legislation, aid

 Traditional Disaster Research:
Origins & Early Years

š Emergence of Modern Disaster

Research
š Catastrophe and Social Change – Samuel
Henry Prince(1920)
šHalifax Explosion (December 6th, 1917)

š A City Destroyed
š The Flying Sailor
Last Village Standing
 Early Disaster Research

š Characteristics:
š University-based (Ohio State,
Chicago, Delaware)
š Sociology Dominated
š Military Funded

š Purpose
š Civilian Response in Cold War Era
Early Disaster Research

š Expected Findings (Assumptions)

š Panic
š Demoralization
š Civil Unrest
š Breakdown of Social Mores
š Pivot to Authority

š Outcomes of studies?
š Why the gap between expectations & outcomes?