“Ambiguity Of Harm”: Technology, Disasters, And Governance

• In Event: Logics of anticipation I

Abstract

The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic response offers a dichotomy of approaches: on the one hand, cutting-edge science and large amounts of money thrown behind the development of vaccines and therapeutics; on the other, efforts to stop the transmission of the disease by changing behaviors, either by government fiat, voluntary adhesion, or some combination (lockdowns, masks, and social distancing).

This illustrates some of the common interactions of disasters and technology. Technology is often held up as the one-stop solution to all sorts of disaster response problems, from communications to seawalls. The financial dynamics of disaster response often prioritize expensive, visible projects over less apparent initiatives like skills-building or community organizing. The pernicious myth that the virus was engineered in a lab reflects the toxic effects of technological disasters. Meanwhile, governments have struggled to articulate their precise role, the minimums and the limits of their responsibilities, leaving an uncertainty that has toxic effects on communities (Kroll-Smith and Couch, 1990; Older 2019).

Improving our preparedness, response, and ability to learn from disasters requires significant reorientation in how we perceive disasters, technology, and governance. This paper will interrogate the ambiguous, technologically inflected responsibilities of governments during disaster response, building on previous work (Older, 2019) that applied findings about the corrosive effects of technological disasters (Freudenburg, 1997) to disaster responses. It asks the question: what are the relationships that could help us better prepare for and deal with disasters, and how can technology support instead of hindering them?

Author

• Malka Older, School for Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University