Theories for Praxis

Abstract

This chapter introduces some important theories that are relevant to understanding the social impacts of disasters, and the role of human service organizations in dealing with such impacts. I begin by discussing the importance of critically examining concepts that are often taken for granted, including expectations about how people will respond to disasters. As already noted in chapter 1, the positive contributions of resilience and social capital to disaster recovery have become widely accepted, but they nonetheless require interrogation. By contrast, the concept of vulnerability appears to be less prominent in the disaster literature, but deserves close attention in the social sciences, and in particular in a study of the human services, because the work of these services revolves around assisting people to overcome disadvantages that reduce their well-being.