Geography and Disasters

Drawing on global case studies, this is the first book to outline and elaborate on the ways that human geography has extended our understanding of disasters.

Every chapter analyses disasters through the lens of a different theoretical framework common to geography, including assemblage theory, post-colonialism, urban political ecology, governmentality, affect theory and scale. The case studies in the collection range from hurricane risk in the Caribbean and volcano eruptions in Chile to floods in India and many more. Each contributor conceives of disasters as processes rather than individual events, thus conceptualizing these events as always-already entangled in the continual making and remaking of collective life.

Overall, the chapters present a “pluriversal” perspective that mirrors geography’s methodological sensitivity to how disasters are shaped by the in-situ conditions in which they unfold. Following such a perspective, the volume both clarifies and stays attuned to, the multiple, often cross-cutting, spatial and temporal registers upon which these events are experienced. In doing so, the contributors also expand upon geography's appreciation for the materiality within disasters. Here, they are thought to arise from but also actively contribute to, the material configuration and reconfiguration of space over time. This allows each chapter to address the ways in which politics is engrained in each event pragmatically. Providing inspiration for future scholars in geography and further afield, the collection is essential reading for those interested in developing more advanced understandings of disasters and how they continue to effect us today.