Paradoxes and perceptions: four essays on disaster

Author(s): Alexander, David
Number of pages: 55 p.
Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) occasional paper 2013-01:

This set of four essays explores pertinent themes connected with disasters in a personal and non-specialist tone: (i) there is nothing more practical than a theoretical approach to disasters; (ii) disasters create their own mythology; (iii) information and perception - living through a revolution; and (iv) disaster, resilience and the tension of the opposites.

From the role of theory in practical and academic work on disasters, perceptions and misassumptions, the information technology revolution, and the meaning of resilience, the essays depict a journey through various sundry aspects of calamity, catastrophe and various forms of emergency and aftermath, and is intended to be a plea for new, creative solutions to the myriad problems presented by disasters.