Living with Hazard: Disaster Subcultures, Disaster Cultures and Risk-Mitigating Strategies

Abstract

Looking back over time reveals many examples of what might be deemed ``cultures of disaster:'' that is, cultural adaptations whereby people modified their behaviour and the environment around them to accommodate hazards on a frequent basis. Just how far any culture is modified depends on the frequency with which the hazard recurs, whether communities are forewarned of the event, the severity of the impact experienced, and its geographical diffusion. Gradations in the extent to which societies seek to normalise risk range from disaster subcultures, with their single hazard and localised adjustments, to disaster cultures that involve much wider societal adjustments to one or many frequently-recurring hazards, to risk-mitigating strategies where one or more specific aspects of culture are similarly influenced.