Citation

Xu B, Lo MCM. Poetics 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.poetic.2022.101682

PMID

35411123

PMCID

PMC8987570

Abstract

Readers of this special issue hardly need to be convinced that disaster is an important research topic because all of us are still living amid a once-in-a-lifetime disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic. The life course of this special issue also has been concurrent with the worldwide disaster. We proposed this special issue to Poetics before the coronavirus began to spread. Our seemingly prophetic move certainly was a sheer coincidence. But even more coincident was that we publicized our call for papers in March 2020, when the virus was pronounced a "global pandemic." Countries around the world started lockdowns, hoping that such practices could "flatten the curve." Two years later, when we are writing this introduction, the flattening effort is anything but a success, although the new variant seems less severe and many in the West have access to effective vaccines. "Regular" disasters, including tsunamis, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and so on, did not spare us despite our bigger trouble. "Disaster," once a term on the margin of sociology, has now become a buzzword, and its popularity unfortunately reflects the dire strait of today's world.

What we seek to convince readers, however, is that cultural sociology provides a valuable perspective on disasters and a fruitful agenda. This perspective focuses on values in the cultural structure, meanings in actions and objects, and norms of interactions, all of which are dramatized and intensified in disaster situations.

Before we proceed, a few words about "culture" and "disaster" are in order. In this special issue, we, along with our contributors, have by and large adopted a framework of "culturalized sociology," which, drawing inspiration from Elizabeth Clemens's (Clemens, 2007)call for a "historicized sociology," views sense-making endeavors as shaping all aspects of social life (Grindstaff and Lo 2020). Granted, not all scholars share this framework; indeed, sociological discussions of culture are riddled with academic contention that, as illustrated by Orlando Patterson (2014), sometimes resembles the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Without adjudicating the diverse schools of thought, our view is that it takes many "hands" (approaches) to comprehend the "elephant" (culture). In reality, there very likely exists more than one elephant.

Language: en