Quarantelli, E. L.2005-03-072005-03-071987http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/495To assess, in any intelligent way, the preparedness planning for disasters requires asking the question: what is good planning? It would be possible to advance some ideal version of what should be, but we prefer to root our answers to the questions in the empirical research undertaken by social and behavioral scientists in the last three decades. Part of this research is particularly strong on the community and organizational aspects of disaster planning. The research cuts across natural and technological disaster agents, but is somewhat stronger on studies done in developed countries (i.e., industrialized and urbanized societies) than in developing countries. There is, therefore, an issue on the question of how much the research findings can be extrapolated to all kinds of societies, so we will address the matter towards the end of this paper.337684 bytesapplication/pdfen-USPreparedness PlanningDisaster PlanningSocietiesOther