Some Needed Cross-Cultural Studies of Disaster Behavior

Abstract

In this paper we first briefly indicate the need and value of doing cross-cultural research on disasters and detail something about the nature of the studies so far undertaken, implying thereby some of their limitations. The second half of the paper elaborates a framework which might be used to systematize cross-cultural studies of disasters, suggests some substantive research priorities and indicates in what ways such work might be organized. This paper, therefore, is a review of the state-of –the-arts and a programmatic paper and neither develops theory nor present research findings on the social and behavioral aspects of natural and technological disasters.