Drawing on global case studies, this is the first book to outline and elaborate on the ways that human geography has extended our understanding of disasters.
Every chapter analyses disasters through the lens of a different theoretical framework common to geography, including assemblage theory, post-colonialism, urban political ecology, governmentality, affect theory and scale. The case studies in the collection range from hurricane risk in the Caribbean and volcano eruptions in Chile to floods in India and many more. Thinking of them as processes rather than individual events, each contributor conceptualizes disasters as always-already entangled in the continual making and remaking of collective life.
Overall, the chapters present a “pluriversal” perspective that mirrors geography's methodological sensitivity to how disasters are shaped by the in-situ conditions in which they unfold. Following such a perspective, the volume both clarifies, and stays attuned to, the multiple, often cross-cutting, spatial and temporal registers upon which disasters are experienced. In doing so, the contributors also expand upon geography's appreciation for how disasters arise from, but also actively contribute to, the material configuration and reconfiguration of space over time. This emphasis allows each chapter to address the complicated ways in which different political issues underpin disasters in different ways. Providing inspiration for future scholars in geography and further afield, the collection is essential reading for those interested in developing more advanced understandings of disasters and how they continue to affect us today.
Edited by:
Nathaniel O'Grady (University of Manchester),
Gemma Sou (Monash University)
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 232mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 520g
ISBN: 9781666970883
ISBN 10: 1666970883
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 11 June 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction 1. (Re)assembling Disaster Geographies, Peter McGowran (Oxford Brookes University, UK) 2. Disaster Vulnerability and Sovereign Indebtedness: The Colonial Legacies Shaping Climate Debt-Spaces, John Hogan Morris (University of Nottingham, UK) and Sam Simkin (University of Warwick, UK) 3. Thinking Disaster Risks and Risk Reduction in the Urban as Multi-Scalar Configurations, Teresa Zimmerman (Free University of Berlin, Germany) 4. The Political Afterlife of Rubble, Amit Amitangshu (IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands) and Giovanna Gioli (Bath Spa University, UK) 5. Dissenting in Disasters: Revisiting Disaster-Democracy Interface in the Era of Intersecting Disasters, Nimesh Dhungana (The University of Manchester, UK) 6. Recipes for Recovery: Women's Experiences from a Post-Disaster Resettlement in Indigenous Guatemala, Ana J. Cabrera Pacheco (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), Diego Reanda Sapalú (University of the Valley of Guatemala), Lisa MacKenzie (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), and Teresa Armijos Burneo (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) 7. Considering the Unique Needs and Experiences of Temporary Foreign Agricultural Workers in Disasters, Ashleigh Rushton, Cindy Jardine, and Marinel Kniseley (University of Fraser Valley, Canada, all) 8. Urban Political Ecology and the (Re)production of Disaster Risks: A Reflection from the Global South, Belén Desmaison (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Peru) and Ricardo-Fuentealba (O'Higgins University, Chile) 9. Disasters and the Politics of Scale, Sophie Blackburn (University of Reading, UK) 10. The Politics of Scale in the Pacific: Disaster Governance in Small Island States, Elissa Waters (Monash University, Australia) 11. The Landscape and Drivers of Urban Flood Disasters in Southwest Nigeria, Ibidun Adelekan, University of Ibidan, Nigeria) Conclusion Index
Nathaniel O’Grady is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Disaster at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Gemma Sou is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Monash University, Australia.
Reviews for Geography and Disasters: Places, Processes and the Human Geographical Imagination
In a world where informed and meaningful disaster governance is as important as ever, O’Grady and Sou have succeeded in producing a timely and thought-provoking volume that highlights valuable disaster research in geography to date and the central role that geographical thought will play moving forward. The skillfully curated chapters weave together new insights with foundational debates to highlight the importance of time, space and place in understanding and addressing disasters, risk politics, and theories of collective life. This go-to resource will surely energize the field of disaster geography by pushing key ontological and epistemological concepts in fresh and productive directions. * Gregory L. Simon, Professor of Geography and the Environment, University of Colorado, Denver, USA * Few works capture with such depth how disasters are made, governed, and remembered. This collection invites us to reimagine what it means to think and live with disaster, moving across worlds from the Himalayas to Latin America and the island constellations of the Caribbean and Pacific. It asks us to see disaster not as rupture but as relation, process, and possibility. The essays weave theory with lived experience, tracing the entanglements of power, place, and imagination. Together they offer a geography that listens — to history, to place, and to the fragile, yet enduring ways people remake life from loss. * Stacy-ann Robinson, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences, Emory University, USA *
