Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Launching the DRC: Historical Context and Future Directions

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Disaster Research and the Second Environmental Crisis

Part of the book series: Environmental Hazards ((ENHA))

Abstract

This chapter describes the historical context within which the Disaster Research Center at The Ohio State University began in 1963, both what came before and major issues confronted during the early years. Future directions in disaster research are then described. Key areas for the future research agenda include both basic theoretical issues and specific areas of inquiry reflecting paradigm shifts and emergent cultural and social changes.

Revision and expansion of the opening statement at the Disaster Research Center’s 50th Anniversary Workshop and Celebration, University of Delaware, Clayton Hall, Newark, Delaware May, 2014. I wish to thank Ruth Ann Drabek for her work on this paper. Partial support was provided by the University of Denver through the John Evans Professorship program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Denver.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aldrich, D. P. (2012). Building resilience: Social capital in post-disaster recovery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich, D. P., & Sawada, Y. (2014). The physical and social determinants of mortality in the 3.11 tsunami. Unpublished paper. Lafayette: Asian Studies, Purdue University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, W. A. (1970). Disaster and organizational change in anchorage. In Committee on the Alaska Earthquake of the National Research Council (Ed.), The Great Alaska earthquake of 1964: Human ecology (pp. 96–115). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angel, R. J., Bell, H., Beausoleil, J., & Lein, L. (2012). Community lost: The state, civil society, and displaced survivors of Hurricane Katrina. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arsenault, M. (2013, April 17). Bomb pieces, circuit board found; FBI requests tips. The Boston Globe, pp. 24–43 (Nook e-version).

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, G. W., & Chapman, D. W. (Eds.). (1962). Man and society in disaster. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, A. H. (1962). The emergency social system. In G. W. Baker & D. W. Chapman (Eds.), Man and society in disaster (pp. 222–2367). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, A. H. (1963). Social organization under stress: A sociological review of disaster studies. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne, K. E., & Peek, L. (2014). Beyond the IRB: An ethical toolkit for long-term disaster research. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 32(March), 82–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, I., Kates, R. W., & White, G. F. (1978). The environment as hazard. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, A. E. (2015). How I learned to stop worrying and love the IRB. Contexts, 14(3), 70–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr, L. (1932). Disaster and the sequence – Pattern concept of social change. American Journal of Sociology, 38, 207–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Companion, M. (Ed.). (2015). Disaster’s impact on livelihood and cultural survival: Losses, opportunities, and mitigation. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosswhite, J., Rice, D., & Asay, S. M. (2014). Texting among United States young adults: An exploratory study on texting and its use within families. The Social Science Journal, 51, 70–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cwiak, C. L. (2014). Increasing access and support for emergency management higher education. Journal of Emergency Management, 12(5), 367–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, E., & Enarson, E. (Eds.). (2012). The women of Katrina: How gender, race, and class matter in an American disaster. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, A. E. (2015). Taking the high ground: Impact of public policy on rebuilding neighborhoods in coastal Japan after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. In M. Companion (Ed.), Disaster’s impact on livelihood and cultural survival: Losses, opportunities, and mitigation (pp. 63–74). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1965). Laboratory simulation of a police communication system under stress. Ph.D. Thesis. Columbus: The Ohio State University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1968). Disaster in Aisle 13: A case study of the coliseum explosion at the Indiana State fairgrounds, October 31, 1963. Columbus: College of Administrative Science, The Ohio State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1969a). Laboratory simulation of a police communication system under stress. Columbus: College of Administrative Science, The Ohio State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1969b). Social processes in disaster: Family evacuation. Social Problems, 16(Winter), 336–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1986). Human system responses to disaster: An inventory of sociological findings. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (1989). Taxonomy and disaster: Theoretical and applied issues. In G. A. Kreps (Ed.), Social structure and disaster (pp. 317–345). Newark: University of Delaware Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2009). Bringing social problems perspectives into emergency management collegiate curricula. In J. A. Hubbard (Ed.), Ideas from an emerging field: Teaching emergency management in higher education (pp. 7–26). Fairfax: Public Entity Risk Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2010). The human side of disaster (1st ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2013). The human side of disaster (2nd ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2014a, April). Disseminating sociological research: The emergency management professional as a case example. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Social Science Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2014b). Emergency managers as community change agents: An expanded vision of the profession. Journal of Emergency Management, 11(1), 9–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2014c). Find it; use it; share it. IAEM Bulletin, 31(January), 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E. (2017). Sociology of disaster. In K. O. Korgen (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of sociology (pp. 139–147). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E., & Eugene Haas, J. (1967). Realism in laboratory simulation: Myth or method? Social Forces, 45(March), 337–346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E., & Eugene Haas, J. (1969). Laboratory simulation of organizational stress. American Sociological Review, 34, 223–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E., & McEntire, D. A. (2002). Emergent phenomena and multi-organizational coordination in disasters: Lessons from the research literature. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 20, 197–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E., & Quarantelli, E. L. (1967). Scapegoats, villains, and disasters. Trans-Action, 4(March), 12–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabek, T. E., Haas, J. E., Quarantelli, E. L., & Dynes, R. R. (1964, December). A theory of organizational stress. A paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Montreal, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap, R. E., & Brulle, R. J. (Eds.). (2015). Climate change and society: Sociological perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dynes, R. R. (1970). Organized behavior in disaster. Lexington: Heath Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dynes, R. R. (2000). The dialogue between Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon earthquake: The emergence of a social science view. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 18, 97–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, K. (1976). Everything in its path: Destruction of community in the Buffalo Creek flood. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, K. (1994). A new species of trouble: Explorations in disaster, trauma, and community. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eyre, A., & Dix, P. (2014). Collective conviction: The story of disaster action. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2011). A whole community approach to emergency management: Principles, themes, and pathways for action. Washington, DC: Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fink, S. (2013). Five days at memorial: Life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital. New York: Crown Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzwater, S. (n.d.). Sea venture played key role in history of Bermuda, Virginia. Jamestown: Jamestown – Yorktown Foundation Outreach Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Form, W. H., & Nosow, S. (1958). Community in disaster. New York: Harper & Brothers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fothergill, A., & Peek, L. (2015). Children of Katrina. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, T. L. (2007). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century (Further updated and expanded). New York: Picador/Ferrar, Straus and Giroux (E-Book version).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, C. E. (1961). Disasters. In R. K. Merton & R. A. Nisbet (Eds.), Contemporary social problems (pp. 651–694). New York: Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, C. E., & Marks, E. S. (1954). The NORC studies of human behavior in disaster. Journal of Social Issues, 10(3), 26–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, R. O. (2015). The emergency community: A grassroots model for post-disaster redevelopment. In M. Companion (Ed.), Disaster’s impact on livelihood and cultural survival: Losses, opportunities, and mitigation (pp. 257–267). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, D., Fitzpatric, D., & DiCarlo, P. (2014, February 4). Federal grand jury investigates West Virginia Chemical Spill. CNN Justice, pp. 1–2. Accessed 2/9/2014@http//:www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/;justice/west-virginia-chemical-spill-grand-jury/.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guetzkow, H. (Ed.). (1962). Simulation in social science: Readings. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haas, J. E., & Drabek, T. E. (1973). Complex organizations: A sociological perspective. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, M., Bealing, C. E., & Salley, J. M. (2015). 2 Txt or not 2 Txt: College students’ reports of when text messaging is social breach. The Social Science Journal, 52, 188–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, C., & Squires, G. D. (Eds.). (2006). There is no such thing as a natural disaster: Race, class, and Hurricane Katrina. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, K. (Ed.). (1983). Interpretations of calamity. Boston: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, R., & Boulding, E. (1949). Families under stress. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homans, G. C. (1950). The human group. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, T. (2015, August 11). Toxic sludge thrusts mining town back in time. USA Today, p. 8A.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ix, M. E., Piccinini, L. M., & Pons, W. I. (2012). “Responding to the Call”: How America’s failing infrastructure puts pressure on emergency response capabilities. Journal of Emergency Management, 10(September/October), 327–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, J., & Chavet, R. L. (2014). Sustainability and the local emergency manager. Journal of Emergency Management, 12(5), 353–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendra, J. M., & Wachtendorf, T. (2016). American Dunkirk: The waterborne evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, J. L. (1964). Experimenter’s manual. Unpublished detailed report. Princeton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, J. L., & Dold, A. W. III. (1964). An exploratory study of heterogeneous team composition related to performance in a simulated industrial setting. Unpublished staff report #4, prepared under Office of Naval Research Contract NONR 1858-(42). Princeton: Princeton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiyota, E., Tanaka, Y., Arnold, M., & Aldrich, D. (2015). Elders leading the way to resilience. Washington, DC: The World Bank Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klinenberg, E. (2006). Blaming the victims: Hearsay, labeling, and the hazards of quick hit disaster ethnography. American Sociological Review, 71, 689–698.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klinenberg, E. (2013, January 7). Adaptation. The New Yorker, pp. 32–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, G. A. (Ed.). (1989). Social structure and disaster. Newark: University of Delaware Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, G. A. (1991). Organizing for emergency management. In T. E. Drabek & G. J. Hoetmer (Eds.), Emergency management: Principles and practice for local government (pp. 30–54). New York: International City Management Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, G. A., & Bosworth, S. L. (1994). Organizing, role enactment and disaster: A structural theory. Newark: University of Delaware.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, G. A., & Drabek, T. E. (1996). Disasters are non-routine social problems. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 14, 129–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroll-Smith, S., Baxter, V., & Jenkins, P. (2015). Left to chance: Hurricane Katrina and the story of two New Orleans neighborhoods. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindell, M., & Perry, R. W. (2004). Communicating environmental risk in multiethnic communities. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEntire, D. A., Sadig, A.-A., & Gupta, K. (2012). Unidentified bodies and mass-fatality management in Hati: A case study of the January 2010 earthquake with a cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 30, 301–317.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGhee, T. (2015, August 20). 3M gallons spilled in river. The Denver Post, pp. 1A, 13A.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. K., & Nisbet, R. A. (Eds.). (1961). Contemporary social problems. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mileti, D. S. (1974). A normative causal model analysis of disaster response. Ph.D. thesis. Boulder: University of Colorado, Department of Sociology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mileti, D. S. (1999). Disasters by design: A reassessment of natural hazards in the United States. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, H. E. (1958). Tornadoes over Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, H. E., Bates, F. L., Layman, M. V., & Parenton, V. J. (1963). Before the wind: A study of response to Hurricane Carla. Washington, DC: National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pace, W., & Montz, B. (2014). Category change and risk perception: Hurricane Irene and Coastal North Carolina. Journal of Emergency Management, 12(6), 467–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pacholak, S. (2013). Into the fire: Disaster and the remaking of gender. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pardee, J. W. (2014). Surviving Katrina: The experiences of low-income African American women. Boulder: First-Forum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, T., et al. (1962). Theories of society. Glencoe: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peacock, W. G. (1997). Cross-national and comparative disaster research. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 15, 117–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrow, C. (2007). The next catastrophe: Reducing our vulnerabilities to natural, industrial and terrorist disasters. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, R. W. (2006). What is a disaster? In H. Rodríguez, E. L. Quarantelli, & R. E. Dynes (Eds.), Handbook of disaster research (pp. 1–15). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, R. W., & Quarantelli, E. L. (Eds.). (2005). What is a disaster? Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phua, K.-L. (2015). Redesigning healthcare systems to meet the health challenges associated with climate change in the twenty-first century. Journal of Emergency Management, 13(3), 255–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prince, S. H. (1920). Catastrophe and social change. PhD. thesis. New York: Department of Political Science, Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (1960). Images of withdrawal behavior in disasters: Some basic misconceptions. Social Problems, 8(Summer), 68–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (1987a). Disaster studies: An analysis of the social historical factors affecting the development of research in the area. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 5, 285–310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (1987b). What should we study? Questions and suggestions for researchers about the concept of disasters. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 5(1), 7–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (1997). The Disaster Research Center field studies of organized behavior in the crisis time period of disasters. International Jurnasl of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 15, 47–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (Ed.). (1998). What is a disaster?: Perspectives on the question. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L., & Davis, I. (2011). An exploratory research agenda for studying the popular culture of disasters (PCD): Its characteristics, conditions, and consequences. Newark: Disaster Research Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L., & Dynes, R. R. (1970). Property norms and looting: Their patterns in community crisis. Phylon, 31(Summer), 168–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renda-Tanalli, I. (2014, Spring). Use of social media in response to Hurricane Sandy in Maryland’s emergency management organizations. HazNet, 5(2), 9–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieken, K., & Weber, P. J. (2015, May 27). Floodwaters deepen in Houston after rain. Denver Post, p. 14A.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothkopf, D. (2014). National insecurity: American leadership in an age of fear. New York: Public Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scanlon, T. J. (1988). Disaster’s little known pioneer: Canada’s Samuel Henry Prince. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 6, 213–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobelson, R. K., Wigington, C. J., Harp, V., & Bronson, B. B. (2015). A whole community approach to emergency management: Strategies and best practices of seven community programs. Journal of Emergency Management, 13(4), 349–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorokin, P. A. (1942). Man and society in calamity. New York: Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Springer, C. G. (2009). Emergency managers as change agents. In J. A. Hubbard (Ed.), Ideas from an emerging field: Teaching emergency management in higher education (pp. 197–211). Fairfax: Public Entity Risk Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stallings, R. A. (1995). Promoting risk: Constructing the earthquake threat. Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruvter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stampnitsky, L. (2013). Disciplining terror: How experts invented ‘terrorism’. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sultan, A. (2014). Addiction to mobile text messaging applications is nothing to ‘LoL’ about. The Social Science Journal, 51, 57–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, D. S. K., Fothergill, A., Phillips, B., & Lovekamp, W. E. (Eds.). (2013). Social vulnerability to disasters (2nd ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, H. (2015). Soldier girls: The battles of three women at home and at war. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tierney, K. J. (2005). The 9/11 commission and disaster management: Little depth, less context, not much guidance. Contemporary Sociology, 34, 115–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urby, H., & McEntire, D. A. (2015). Emergency managers as change agents: Recognizing the value of management, leadership, and strategic management in the disaster profession. Journal of Emergency Management, 13(1), 37–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachtendorf, T., & Kendra, J. (2012). Reproductive improvisation and the virtues of sameness: The art of reestablishing New York City’s Emergency Operations Center. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 30(3), 249–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, A. F. C. (1956). Tornado in Worcester. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, L., & Peek, L. (Eds.). (2012). Displaced: Life in the Katrina diaspora. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weshinskey-Price, J. P. (2015). Gender considerations for disaster management practices. In M. Companion (Ed.), Disaster’s impact on livelihood and cultural survival: Losses, opportunities, and mitigation (pp. 37–47). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., & Davis, I. (2005). At risk, second edition: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wukich, C. (2015). Social media use in emergency management. Journal of Emergency Management, 13(4), 281–294.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Thomas E. Drabek

Authors
  1. Thomas E. Drabek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas E. Drabek .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Disaster Research Center and Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    James Kendra

  2. Department of History, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Scott G. Knowles

  3. Disaster Research Center and Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Tricia Wachtendorf

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Drabek, T.E. (2019). Launching the DRC: Historical Context and Future Directions. In: Kendra, J., Knowles, S., Wachtendorf, T. (eds) Disaster Research and the Second Environmental Crisis. Environmental Hazards. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04691-0_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation