Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America

Ocean literacies: the promise of regional approaches integrating ocean histories and psychologies

“…Left unsaid is the culpability of those people who contributed most to global climate change for present and coming sea level rise, which will negatively impact groups of people such as Pacific islanders who did little to contribute to the problem (Gerhardt, 2023). Also elided is the fact that the political and economic choice of coastal development, which leaves people and property vulnerable, is often disguised by defining damage from hurricane or other forces as "natural disasters" even when they are consequences of past human decisions and actions (Steinberg, 2006). The category of discovery receives special distinction in ocean literacy, with the seventh principle devoted to the ocean being "largely unexplored."…”

Managing the COVID-19 crisis by fiscal strategies: Lessons from four countries

“…Crises and emergency management is an important and growing research area in the public administration, public management, and government financial management fields (Christensen et al, 2016;Comfort, 1988;Farazmand, 2001;Haddow & Bullock, 2006;Kacupu, 2008;McGuire & Silvia, 2010;Midriff, 2004;Moynihan, 2005;Perrow, 1984;Pinsdorf, 2004;Steinberg, 2000;Waugh, 2001;Wise, 2006). Public administration scholars view crises as unexpected and unpredictable events or situations which may disrupt the routine events of life and governance, disturb established structures and fundamental values or norms of systems, and provide dynamics that nobody can predict and control (Farazmand, 2007;Rosenthal et al, 1989).…”

The government of emergency: Vital systems, expertise, and the politics of security. By Stephen J.Collier and AndrewLakoff, Princeton University Press. 2021

“…It is also an important contribution to a growing line of scholarship that critically approaches the concept of “disaster” itself. This scholarship, including work like Ted Steinberg’s Acts of God: The unnatural history of natural disasters in America (2000), Lisa Stampnitzky's Disciplining Terror: How experts invented “Terrorism” (2013), and Kasia Paprocki’s Threatening Dystopias: The global politics of climate change adaptation in Bangladesh (2021), show how institutions construct certain types of suffering and disruption into problems that are worthy of particular kinds of state intervention. Here, Collier and Lakoff are interested in the development of a strain of political logic that conceives of “a range of seemingly disparate phenomena, from nuclear attacks and economic shocks to hurricanes and disease outbreaks” as “common types of events that present similar kinds of problems” and call for similar types of solutions (5).…”