Impact of Natural Disasters on Systemic Political and Social Inequities in the U.S.

Paul S. Adams is associate professor of political science and chair of the Behavioral Sciences Division at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. Geoffrey L. Wood is associate professor of sociology and director of the Center for Applied Research at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

• Chapter 1: The Impact of Natural Disasters on Inequities: Exploring New Paradigms and Relevant EvidenceGeoffrey L. WoodChapter 2: The Missing Link in Disaster Social SciencePeter Loebach and Julie StewartChapter 3: Working for the Clampdown: The Impact of Hyper-Decentralization on Voter Registration & Ballot Access in the Wake of Natural DisastersPaul Simon AdamsChapter 4: Judging Worthiness: Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans and the Articulation of American National IdentityAmilcar Antonio BarretoChapter 5: “I Think They Capitalized… on a Lot of People’s Loss”: Perceptions of Reconstruction after the Tuscaloosa TornadoAriane ProhaskaChapter 6: No Port in the Storm: Hurricanes and the Impact of Criminal RecordsPamela Ray Koch and Dennis FeasterChapter 7: Other Impacts of Natural Disasters: Media Framing, Crime, and Categorical InequalityTimothy Holler and Renee LamphereChapter 8: The Way Forward—How Do We Improve Outcomes and Create Solutions for People Impacted by Natur

This collection of essays probes the economic, political, and social impacts of natural disasters in the US. The common thread throughout is a focus on social and political inequities, which are shown to be pervasive throughout the US. The contributors address inequities that appear in numerous areas, even those not often linked to natural disasters, such as voting, reintegration into society after incarceration, worthiness, and many more. At the root of these issues the reader finds the struggle for power, the importance of perception, and the necessity for capital of all stripes. The authors astutely argue that natural disasters create not only literal voids in space but also spaces in which ideologies flourish. By studying natural disasters from a variety of social scientific perspectives, this volume as a whole clearly demonstrates the scholarly need to examine complex issues from many different angles. Additionally, it not only makes a convincing case to build on the study of power and its linkages to natural disasters, it also implicitly makes the case that there is considerable work to be done on the study of power in society more generally. Recommended.