The Comparative Study of Disaster: A Social Organizational Approach
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Disaster Research Center
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Disasters can provide an exceptional opportunity for the comparative analysis of social systems, Disaster events are particularly useful for comparative purposes since they activate a variety of structures and processes with which the social system attempts to cope. In addition, disaster events allow for the observation of complex intergroup and interinstitutional relationships which in "normal times" usually emerge more slowly and segmentally. Such complexity
is often slighted in most other comparative research since methodologies are used which place a premium on precision and abstraction rather than on the real complexities of social interrelationships. Disaster events are also useful for comparative purposes not only in understanding the more immediate adaptation of social systems but also because they are significant in understanding long-range social change.