What Is a Disaster

Fieldwork is stimulating, challenging, and provides immediate rewards for the researcher. Although contemplating theoretical and paradigmatic issues in one’s office may be less exciting by comparison, it is important to deal with such tasks. Devising a definition of disasters or assessing consensus on a definition is not only a part of sound theory and methodology (Bunge, 1998) but also contributes to a clearer vision of the field of study, and on a very practical level, helps to sort out apparent anomalies in research findings and sets the stage for a progression from simple description toward the social scientific tasks of explanation, prediction, and control (Homans, 1967).

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