Communities, policy and chronic technological disasters

Abstract

This article argues that chronic technological disasters are best viewed as processes rather than as events. Chronic technological disasters are embedded in a variety of decisions and policies that regulate, or fail to regulate, the process that results in what comes to be defined, through social processes, as a technological disaster. We present the argument for examining chronic technological disasters as policy processes and examine stages of chronic technological disasters in the areas of definition, prevention, siting, contingency planning, response, adaption and recovery. Future research in chronic technological disasters must not only focus on the effects of disasters, but also on the precipitating factors that permitted the technological accident to occur and be recognized, the politicized solutions to technological disasters, and the role of policy in preparing for inevitable human and technological failures.