The cultural construction of disaster preparedness

• In Event: 4366 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Global and Transnational Knowledge Production

Abstract

In this study, we examine adoption of the first global disaster risk reduction standard, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), by 186 countries over the 2005-2015 period. Practical accounts emphasize the instrumental benefits of the framework in mitigating potential harm and damage. In this line of thought, national exposure to hazard or the experience of a recent disaster should be likely to promote adoption. Surprisingly, these explanations do little to explain country adoption. Thus, we test alternative explanations for which we found strong support: drawing on neoinstitutional theory, we find that country embeddedness in rationalized world culture, a country’s historical legacy of experiencing disaster, and regional diffusion of the standards promote adoption. Taken together, our results suggest that preparedness against natural disasters is a culturally mediated practice. A core implication of our work is that many of the countries most in need of disaster preparedness may, at present, be the least prepared.

Author

• Patricia Bromley