Methods of Disaster Research

 

Edited by Robert A. Stallings

 

Volume Two in the International Research Committee on Disasters Monograph Series

 

Description

 

    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 world's leading specialists in disaster research, provides for the first time a primer on disaster research methods.

    Topics covered include those which have been standard methods of research in the field of disaster studies such as qualitative field studies and survey research.  Among these is a chapter on the exploratory techniques of the Disaster Research Center, the oldest institute for disaster studies in the world, written by one of its cofounders and long-time codirectors.

    Also included are chapters on several approaches underutilized thus far in disaster research such as cross-national comparisons, economic modeling, historical methods, and media studies.

Newer tools, bound to be more prominently used in disaster studies in the future, are covered as well.  These include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), electronic databases,  and the Internet as a research tool.  Also included is an extensive appendix identifying and annotating Web sites around the world that are especially relevant for disaster researchers.

    Among the special topics covered by the contributors are: issues involved in conducting field research in developing countries; needed research on nonprofit organizations and on public-private partnerships in disaster mitigation; gender issues affecting field research; the use of simulation as a technique for verifying hypotheses generated in exploratory field studies; and problems encountered in conducting research in an era of increasing concern for litigation, public image, and the protection of human subjects.

    Included in this volume is the classic National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences report prepared by Lewis Killian in 1956.  This rare document remains one of the best statements ever written on the special problems encountered in studying postdisaster behavior.  The volume also contains an introductory chapter reviewing the previous scholarly literature on the methods of disaster research.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

        Forward

            T. JOSEPH SCANLON

 

1      Introduction: Methods of Disaster Research, Unique or Not?

            ROBERT A. STALLINGS

 

 

PART  I  Context

 

2      Preface    

            LEWIS M. KILLIAN

 

3     An Introduction to Methodological Problems of Field Studies in Disasters

            LEWIS M. KILLIAN

 

4     The Disaster Research Center (DRC) Field Studies of Organized Behavior 
        in the Crisis Time Period of Disasters

            E. L. QUARANTELLI

 

5      Following Some Dreams: Recognizing Opportunities, Posing Interesting 
        Questions, and Implementing Alternative Methods

            THOMAS E. DRABEK

 

 

PART  II  Continuities

 

6    Survey Research

            LINDA B. BOURQUE, KIMBERLEY I. SHOAF, AND LOC H. NGUYEN

 

7     Qualitative Methods and Disaster Research

            BRENDA D. PHILLIPS

 

8     The Economics of Natural Disasters

            ANTHONY M. J. YEZER

 

9     Cross-national and Comparative Disaster Research

            WALTER GILLIS PEACOCK

 

10    Media Studies

            MARCO LOMBARDI

 

11      Rewriting a Living Legend: Researching the 1917 Halifax Explosion

            T. JOSEPH SCANLON

 

 

PART  III  Prospects

 

12      Methodological Changes and Challenges in Disaster Research:
         Electronic Media and the Globalization of Data Collection 

            WOLF R. DOMBROWSKY

 

13    The Use of Geographical Information Systems in Disaster Research

            NICOLE DASH

 

14    Problems and Prospects of Disaster Research in the Developing World: 
        A Case Study of Bangladesh

            HABIBUL HAQUE KHONDKER

 

15    The Field Turns Fifty: Social Change and the Practice of
      Disaster Fieldwork

            KATHLEEN J. TIERNEY

 

 

PART  IV Postscript

 

16    Future Disaster Research: A Practitioner's Viewpoint on
        Public-Private Partnerships

            OLLIE DAVIDSON

 

 

PART  V  Appendix

 

        Selected Internet Resources on Natural Hazards and Disasters

            DAVID L. BUTLER

 

        References 

 

        Index

 

 

About the Editor

 

Robert A. Stallings (Ph.D., Sociology, The Ohio State University, 1971) is Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at the University of Southern California.  From 1967 to 1971 he was a research assistant at the Disaster Research Center.  He served as editor of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (1997-2002) and is president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Disasters (RC 39).  He is the author of Promoting Risk: Constructing the Earthquake Threat (Aldine de Gruyter, 1995).  His most recent article, "Weberian Political Sociology and Sociological Disaster Studies," appeared in the June 2002 issue of Sociological Forum.

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