Quarantelli, E. L.2005-03-182005-03-181998http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/635This article discusses how societies and their subdivisions (particularly at the community level) organize themselves for protection against and response to disasters and related collective crises of a peacetime nature. Complicating our presentation is that there is not much agreement even on the label designating these social arrangements. While "civil protection" is a term widely used in Europe, in many other countries around the world, the organized efforts to cope with collective threats are called "emergency management" or "disaster planning." There is a substantial but not complete overlap in referent among these three terms. Also, we will specifically examine the relationship between the phenomena called "civil protection" and "civil defense," the last being a term first applied to nonmilitary preparations for civilian involvement in wartime situations.2835143 bytesapplication/pdfen-USDisasterSocietiescivil protectionemergency managementdisaster planningOther