Disaster Reduction: The Importance Of Adequate Assumptions About Social Organization

The paper focuses on the importance in having adequate assumptions about the nature of social behavior in designing training materials oriented toward the goal of disaster reduction. The paper will argue that disaster is a social rather than a “natural” happening. Thus any effort at disaster reduction will involve planning and action by various social units. The success of those efforts will depend on the adequacy of understanding that social base. The local community is taken as the primary focus of attention since that is the common unit which is affected by disaster and, more importantly, responds to deal with the event.