Social differentiation and the long-term origin of disasters

✍ Scribed by Lars Clausen

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 521 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-030X
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00124622

✦ Synopsis

To explain both origin and outcome of disasters ('natural', 'technical', and 'war-borne'), as well as social action during disasters proper, a macrosociological model of internal causation is introduced ('PERDUE'). It consists of six stages of possible, and of most likely paths of social change between these six ('Peace is founded', 'Everyday routine', 'Rising class struggle', 'Disasters strike', 'Unconditional surrender of collective defence', and 'Evaporation of common values'). The stages are developed by making use of three dimensions of social change ('rapidity', 'radicality', and 'rituality'), and described. Key words. PERDUE, social stages of natural disasters, model (macrosociological) of disaster figurations, social differentiation, social change: dimensions, sociology of disaster.

This cannot give more than a very general idea of how 'social differentiation' may explain internally caused large-scale disasters in society. One will recognize well-known and less well-known approaches designed by differing social scientists. Insofar as they compete with each other, this will certainly give rise more to distrust than trust. This has been discussed at the Disasters Research Unit (Kata-