Interruptions: imagining an analytical otherwise for disaster studies in Latin America

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the research, the authors identify how four key concepts in disaster studies—agency, local scale, memory and vulnerability—are interrupted, and how these interruptions offer new perspectives for doing disaster research from and for the South.

Design/methodology/approach

Meta-analysis of case studies and revision of past and current collaborations of authors with communities across Chile.

Findings

The findings suggest that agency, local scale, memory and vulnerability, as fundamental concepts for disaster risk reduction (DRR) theory and practice, need to allow for ambivalences, ironies, granularization and further materializations. The authors identify these characteristics as the conditions that emerge when doing disaster research from within the disaster itself, perhaps the critical condition of what is usually known as the South.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to a reflexive assessment of fundamental concepts for critical disaster studies. The authors offer research-based and empirically rich redefinitions of these concepts. The authors also offer a novel understanding of the political and epistemological conditions of the “South” as both a geography and a project.

Citation

Tironi, M., Campos-Knothe, K., Acuña, V., Isola, E., Bonelli, C., Gonzalez Galvez, M., Kelly, S., Juzam, L., Molina, F., Pereira Covarrubias, A., Rivas, R., Undurraga, B. and Valdivieso, S. (2022), "Interruptions: imagining an analytical otherwise for disaster studies in Latin America", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 243-259. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-03-2021-0102