Citation

Bates FL, Peacock WG. Int. J. Mass Emerg. Disasters 1989; 7(3): 349-365.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, International Sociological Association, International Research Committee on Disasters)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

A discussion of recovery following a disaster cannot be isolated from a general conceptual overview of disasters as a specific type of phenomenon. In particular, how the term disaster is defined is of crucial importance because recovery itself must be viewed against a set of definitional assumptions. The questions, "Recovery from what?" and "Recovery of what?" must be answered before we can even start a sensible discussion of the process of adaptive reordering which follows a disaster. Furthermore, the definition of the term disaster employed in discussing recovery must be such that answers to these questions flow directly and unambiguously from it. This paper must, therefore, begin by taking a position with respect to the definition of the term disaster, one which is compatible with the study of recovery. The search for a definition will assume, for obvious reasons, that any event which does not require a recovery process is by definition not a disaster.

Language: en