Abstract
Following a sociological approach, it is necessary to differentiate between two aspects of “disaster”. Disaster is a very accelerated and radical type of social change; and, in a sociologic dimension of secularization (2), I call its two social extremes “loss” (Ger. Schaden) and “catastrophe”. May I just give a draft of the two ways disaster may work:
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1)
it may cause loss, which is an anticipated and even predictable social change; it is embedded in well-known life circumstances (social processes), and, if such incur, it is recognized by means of socialized patterns; to suffer means “defeat”;
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2)
whereas catastrophe is an uncanny and sudden event; in the middle of well-known social processes, it takes one unawares; it is overwhelming and changes “everything”; to suffer means to be slain by the Unknowable (3, 6).
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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Clausen, L. (1980). The Rise of Catastrophes. In: Frey, R., Safar, P. (eds) Types and Events of Disasters Organization in Various Disaster Situations. Disaster Medicine, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67093-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67093-0_4
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