Patterns Of Sheltering And Housing In American Disasters
Files
Date
1991
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Description
There is a somewhat exotic field of study called the history and sociology of science. It basically try to describe and explain the factors that are involved in the initiation and growth of any area of organized study. Among other findings, it has been discovered that there are some predictable stages in the development of concepts used in any scientific area. Typically and particularly in a relatively new field of research, the earlier workers in the area, almost inevitably start out using everyday terms and labels to describe and explain whatever they are studying. Then as the scientific field develops, certain distinctions begin to be made. Certain phenomena which are put together by everyday labels are analytically pulled apart and given different labels, whereas other phenomena which are not treated under the same name by ordinary discourse are conversely put together in the scientific conceptualizations. Eventually, as the field matures, new and different from everyday terminology terms and labels are often created and used as major concepts in the area. In this last stage, both the names for the concepts and the phenomena being conceptualized are frequently rather different from the original everyday usages.
Keywords
housing, sheltering