Culture, community and disaster

This issue of the Observer focuses on culture, community and disaster and examines several cases of disaster recovery and response regarding community participation and inclusion. The issue also makes the case for addressing the wide range of needs of community members and calls for more culturally sensitive disaster management. Communities that experience large-scale disasters can be further traumatized when outside organizations responding to the event fail to consider local culture, expertise, and capacity.

This issue features the following articles:

• The Sendai Agreement and disaster risk reduction: Conceptual influences from the field of disability studies;
• Sandy on Staten Island: Culture, barriers to recovery, and the question of resilience;
• Looking through different filters: Culture and bureaucracy in the aftermath of disaster;
• Disaster quilts and quilters: Giving and receiving;
• The case for capitals: Leveraging key resources in a catastrophic event.

Observer, Volume XL, Number 5, June 2016.