Escape from New York? The Sociology of Urban Doomsday Preppers

• In Event: 378 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 15. Environmental Sociology

Abstract

The study examines the origins and the rise of Doomsday Preppers, the urban survivalist subculture in New York. Our study has three main goals. First, the [sub culture] customs and discourse of the group will be analyzed to discover how urban survivalists view the power of the government and social networks in an apocalyptic world. What defines Doomsday for these urban dwellers? How are their expectations of the responsibilities of government and individuals defined by race, ethnicity, religion, and gender? As public anxieties about a weakened economy and environmental catastrophes have increased, the popularity of survivalist and self-protection has also grown. Therefore, the second goal of this project is to explore how political and environmental crisis have fueled membership in “prepper” groups. Interest in “prepping” for Doomsday has also been driven by popular culture such as television shows, film, and books that depict the struggle to survive in an apocalyptic world. Given the popularity of such texts, the third goal of this project draws on content analysis to examine representations of “preppers” in popular culture.

Authors

• Ryan C. Sperry, City University of New York-Queens College

• Anna Maria Bounds, City University of New York-Queens College