In the forward to Communities in Disaster: A Sociological Analysis of Collective Stress Situations (Barton 1969), Robert Merton notes that
…sociological theory and research not only help us to identify and to understand what goes on when disaster strikes but also that, conversely, the investigation of these phenomena can extend the sociological theories of human behavior and social organization far beyond the confines of disaster situations. In this sense, collective disasters provide research sites strategic for developing certain sociological theories. Conditions of collective stress bring out in bold relief aspects of social systems that are not so readily visible in the less stressful conditions of everyday life (pp. xi-xii).
While natural disasters may offer a timely and unique opportunity to critically examine social inequalities, they also present important methodological challenges and ethical dilemmas to the population health researcher. The overarching purpose of this seminar is to begin to address some of the benefits and perils of disaster research within the context of population health. Specifically, I would like use Hurricane Katrina as an example of a natural disaster that (1) called national attention in both the scholarly and mainstream presses to issues of race, class, and gender in the United States -- a nation that regularly shirks from discussions of these topics; (2) made it apparent that environmental conditions interact with the aspects of the social structure to produce health outcomes; (3) the social impact of “natural” disasters is not random; rather, it is shaped by a succession of government policies, economic decisions, and investment/divestment strategies; (4) and ethical considerations are not simply ideas to be bandied about by intellectuals and academics but help to shape individual, family, and community realities on a very concrete level.
Required readings:
Dyson, ME. 2006. “Great Migrations?” In After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina. DD Troutt (Ed). New Press: New York.
Elliott, JR and J Pais. 2006. Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina: Social Difference in Human Responses to Disaster. Social Science Research 35:295-321.
Recommended (ie. Background) Reading:
Cutter, SL and CT Emrich. 2006. Moral Hazard, Social Catastrophe: The Changing Face of Vulnerability along the Hurricane Coasts. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 604:102-112.
Logan, JR. 2006. The Impact of Katrina: Race and Class in Storm-Damaged Neighborhoods. Unpublished Manuscript. Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences Initiative. Brown University.
Merton, RK. 1969. “Foreword” In Communities in Disaster: A Sociological Analysis of Collective Stress Situations. AH Barton. Doubleday: New York.
Also, there is an incredible web-based mapping utility at the following URL:
http://www.s4.brown.edu/katrina/Map_Instruct.html
where you can construct your own maps of the affected area as well as superimpose social, economic, and demographic characteristics which are largely derived from census data.
Hopefully, the required readings will serve to generate a lively discussion about disaster research, social inequalities, and population health. The following questions are meant to serve as a guide to the readings as well as shape our discussion. However, they are in no way exhaustive of the topics we can address during this seminar. If you have other questions/thoughts/concerns to which these discussion questions do not attend, please come to seminar on the 22nd ready to talk about them with the larger group.
- Is it useful, fair, wise, etc. to view disasters as a way to explore the underlying social structure and the stratification inherent within? Do you agree with Merton’s point elaborated above? Most importantly, do you think that disasters (or other instances of acute collective stress) enable us to investigate social inequalities that may not be noticeable under more usual circumstances?
- Do you think that disaster research should be primarily conducted by public health/medical “types” who generally tackle more applied problems and are often concerned with immediate health outcomes, direct service provision, resource allocation, etc? How much value do you place on disaster research that seeks to use an anomalous event to elucidate social inequalities? When individuals are in desperate need of basic goods and services, should we be more concerned with the immediacy of the event rather than its utility as a lens into the social structure?
- How can we begin to construct stories about natural disasters through empirical research that highlights the fact that the immediate and longterm impact of disasters are the result of a series of policy decisions? Do you think this is part of our role as researchers especially if the empirical work we seek to conduct is more applied and focused on the immediate needs of the survivors rather than the underlying system of social stratification?
- While Elliott and Pais come to the conclusion that the effects of Hurricane Katrina cannot be understood simply by invoking the false dichotomy of race or class, they nonetheless set up their research hypotheses and the entire paper based upon this framework. Similarly, much of the conceptual work by social scientists concerning Katrina and its impact has been reduced to an “either/or” debate about race and class. How do we begin to move beyond such a simple understanding of a complex series of events which led to destruction and devastation largely borne by minorities, the poor, the sick, and the elderly?
- Do you believe Elliot and Pais’ interpretation of the finding (p. 315) that Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina were more likely to report “leaning on the lord” as a source of emotional support while White survivors were more likely to rely on friends and family. The authors suggest that a divergent cultural interpretation of coping mechanisms exists. African Americans recognize that religious faith enables social networks to function in the face of adversity while Whites view the support of friends/family as distinctly different from religious or spiritual uplift. Do you agree?
- Do you find Dyson’s typology of submerged, subversive, and subsidized migrations helpful in thinking about how social inequalities shaped the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? How closely are these concepts related to Mindy Fullilove’s understanding of “root shock”?
- In the opening quote, Merton referred to disasters as experiences of collective stress. Do you think that extant theories for how stress becomes embodied or “gets under the skin” (ie. the stress process, weathering, John Henryism, etc) are sufficient to capture what happens during an event as acute as a disaster? Or are these conceptualizations more useful for thinking about the longterm effects of chronic disease on population health outcomes? Do we need something in between PTSD which is seen as an individual phenomenon, highly medicalized, and dependent on specific diagnostic criteria, and concepts such as weathering?
