Praktisches Wissen, Wissenschaft und Katastrophen. Zur Geschichte der sozialwissenschaftlichen Katastrophenforschung, 1949–1989

Abstract

PraktischesW issen, Wissenschaft undK atastrophen. ZurG eschichte der sozialwissenschaftlichen Katastrophenforschung, 1949Katastrophenforschung, -1989 CØcile StephanieS tehrenberger Summary: Practical Knowledge, Sciencea nd Disasters. TheH istory of Social Science Disaster Research,1949-1979. During thesecondhalfo fthe twentiethc entury severalU S-American social science" disaster research groups"c onducted fields tudies afterearthquakes,factory explosions and"racial riots".Their aimwas to providepractical knowledget hatc ould be appliedi nt he planning andm anagingo ff utured isasters of bothpeace-and wartime nature.Inthispaper,Iwill elaborateonhow this researchgoal conflicted with some scientists'a spirations to develop more theoreticalk nowledge and theiro wn ideals of "scientificity". Iw illa lsos howh ow theg enerated research results came to be 'impractical knowledge',which wasdifficult or impossible to apply. Furthermore this papera nalyzest he scientific practices that wereinvolved at differents tages of thek nowledge production processa nd contributedt od isasterr esearch's' precarious' character. EinleitungAm 28. März 1963u m0 8.07U hr morgense rreichte dieL eiterd es an derO hioS tate University neug egründeten Disaster ResearchC enters (DRC)die Nachrichtvon einem starkenErdbeben, dasinder Nachtzuvor denBundesstaat Alaska erschütterthatte.Drei Stundens p äterf logen zweiM itgliedere ines DRC-Forschungsteamsn achA nchorage, um dieK atastrophenreaktionend er dortigen Bevçlkerung undR ettungsorganisationen zu untersuchen. Innerhalbd er nächsten Ta ge wurden über7 0I nterviewsm it Katastrophenüberlebenden, mitF euerwehrleutenu nd mitZ ivilschutzbeamteng eführt. Zu den Forschungszielen hieß es im ersten dazu verfasstenForschungsbericht:TheD isasterR esearchCenterisinterestedinbothintra-and inter-organizationals tructuresand functions in stress situations.[…] Findings on such mattersare intended to provideguidanceand guidelines to allplanners andadministratorsconcerned with effectivee mergencyoperationsoforganizationsincrisissituations,of apeacetime or awartime nature. 1 DasD RC iste inev on fünf sozialwissenschaftlichenK atastrophenforschungsgruppen, derenA ktivitäteni ch in diesemA rtikel analysiere. Diea nderen wurden in denJ ahren

Urban Resilience in a Global Context

“…The new emphasis on disaster preparedness owed much to the new insights of social scientists, particularly those of U.S. geographer Gilbert F. White (see on White Hinshaw 2006;Lübken 2012; on the broader context of disaster research in the social sciences see Stehrenberger 2014). One of the most influential voices within the academic community in the 1970s, White had launched his career with a study on settlement patterns in the floodplains of the Mississippi in the 1950s, and had then turned into one of the leading figures in the emerging field of disaster studies.…”