February 01, 2006

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http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/


SSRC Home Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

As analyses and "spin" of the Katrina crisis grow, we confront the sort of public issue to which a social science response is urgently needed. Accordingly, the SSRC has organized this forum addressing the implications of the tragedy that extend beyond "natural disaster," "engineering failures," "cronyism" or other categories of interpretation that do not directly examine the underlying issues—political, social and economic—laid bare by the events surrounding Katrina. Essays on this site explore a number of subjects related to:

  • Structures of vulnerability, including the race, class, gender, and age of those suffering most
  • Political projects that have distorted the pursuit of "homeland security"
  • Bias that has sent federal resources disproportionately to rural areas and suburbs rather than cities
  • Media coverage of the disaster
  • Response from the American public
  • Philanthropic and charitable responses
  • The physical infrastructure on which cities depend (and its vulnerabilities)
  • The implications of the Iraq War
  • Problems of oil dependency and related infrastructures
  • Environmental policy and global warming, wetlands management, etc.
  • Costs of “privatization” and cuts in government capacity
  • Leadership at every level
  • Law enforcement and public order
  • Predicting "emergencies" and responding to predictions
  • The economic implications of catastrophic events
  • Comparisons: to the recent Asian tsunami, to 9/11 in New York, to earlier hurricane disasters in the U.S., etc

Symbolic and Practical Interpretations of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster in New Orleans

David Alexander, disaster management, University of Florence

The Tale of the Three Pigs

Greg Bankoff, Asian Studies, University of Auckland

Worst Case

KatrinaLee Clarke, sociology, Rutgers University

The Geography of Social Vulnerability: Race, Class, and Catastrophe

Susan L. Cutter, geography, University of South Carolina

An Imperfect Storm: Narratives of Calamity in a Liberal-Technocratic Age

Alex de Waal, anthropology, SSRC

Seeing and Not Seeing: Complicity in Surprise

Virginia R. Dominguez, anthropology, University of Iowa

Finding and Framing Katrina: The Social Construction of Disaster

Russell R. Dynes, sociology, University of Delaware; Havidán Rodríguez, sociology, University of Delaware

Women and Girls Last? Averting the Second Post-Katrina Disaster

Elaine Enarson, sociology, Brandon University

Our Toxic Gumbo: Recipe for a Politics of Environmental Knowledge

Scott Frickel, sociology, Tulane University

Katrina’s Political Roots and Divisions: Race, Class, and Federalism in American Politics

Paul Frymer, politics and legal studies, UC-Santa Cruz; Dara Z. Strolovitch, political science, University of Minnesota; Dorian T. Warren, public policy, University of Chicago

Leaving New Orleans: Social Stratification, Networks, and Hurricane Evacuation

Elizabeth Fussell, sociology, Tulane University

What Katrina Teaches about the Meaning of Racism

Nils Gilman, history

Cities Under Siege: Katrina and the Politics of Metropolitan America

Stephen Graham, geography, Durham University

Bridges Over Troubled Waters: What are the Optimal Networks for Katrina’s Victims?

Jeanne S. Hurlbert, sociology, Louisiana State University;John J. Beggs, sociology, Louisiana State University;Valerie A. Haines, sociology, University of Calgary

Un/natural Disasters, Here and There

Stephen Jackson, anthropology, SSRC

Political Floodwaters

James M. Jasper, Contexts magazine

The Criminalization of New Orleanians in Katrina’s Wake

Sarah Kaufman, sociology, New York University

New Orleans: The Public Sphere of the Disaster

Monika Krause, sociology, New York University

From Disaster to Catastrophe: The Limits of Preparedness

Andrew Lakoff, sociology, UC San Diego

Questions About Power: Lessons from the Louisiana Hurricane

Steven Lukes, sociology, New York University

Empowering knowledge: A modest proposal for a broader social science research agenda in the wake of Katrina

James K. Mitchell, geography, Rutgers University

Death on the Roof: Race and Bureaucratic Failure

Harvey Molotch, sociology and metropolitan studies, New York University

Hurricanes, Poverty, and Vulnerability: An Historical Perspective

Matthew Mulcahy, history, Loyola College in Maryland

***Disasters and Forced Migration in the 21st Century

Anthony Oliver-Smith, anthropology, University of Florida

Play it again, FEMA

Charles Perrow, sociology, Yale University

Catastrophes are Different from Disasters: Some Implications for Crisis Planning and Managing Drawn

from KatrinaE. L. Quarantelli, sociology, University of Delaware

Two Cities, Two Evacuations: Some Thoughts on Moving People Out

Joseph Scanlon, Emergency Communications Research Unit, Carleton University

**There’s No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster

Neil Smith, anthropology and geography, CUNY Graduate Center

Weather Media and Homeland Security: Selling Preparedness in a Volatile World

Marita Sturken, communications, New York University

Toxic Soup Redux: Why Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Matter after Katrina

Julie Sze, American Studies, University of California, Davis

The Red Pill

Kathleen Tierney, sociology, University of Colorado at Boulder

Improvising Disaster in the City of Jazz: Organizational Response to Hurricane Katrina

Tricia Wachtendorf, sociology, University of Delaware, and James M. Kendra, public administration, University of North Texas


*****See also:The Privatization of RiskA forum organized by the SSRC

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