Emergency Management, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT THEORY

By questioning taken‐for‐granted assumptions about disasters and introducing new theoretical perspectives that sensitize researchers to features of the social order and processes that were previously overlooked, recent scholarship promises to transform the field of disaster studies.

—Kathleen Tierney, et al.Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States

The historical study of disasters provides a fertile source of information for emergency managers. However, this information is often anecdotal and incomplete. A great deal of study is required to identify trends and draw conclusions that are useful in emergency planning. To meet this need, emergency managers must turn to the discipline of social science.

Social science is the study of human society and of individual relationships in, and to, society. Where history tells what occurred, social scientists attempt to determine why something happened. From this, it is possible to predict what is likely to occur in the future and to base emergency planning on realistic possibilities rather than on the many myths and unchallenged assumptions that are common to emergency planning.

For too many emergency managers, social science is an overlooked tool. In fairness, there are reasons for this. Academics tend to write for other academics, sometimes making their work difficult to read for the layperson. Researchers ...