Disasters and their share of tragedies continue to multiply and with them the work which, in the human and social sciences, strives to understand what can make sense in their repetition. It is to re-understand the nature of this research that this file is devoted to The life of ideas opens today.
Bhopal, Chernobyl, World Trade Center, Katrina, Haiti, Fukushima… The list is long of disasters which regularly punctuate our recent history. Disasters seem to catch us off guard, unable as we are to anticipate them and control their effects. The general outpouring of compassion that surrounds them and the solidarity, real or symbolic, that they weave does little to conceal the helplessness to which they inevitably refer us. Catastrophe, isn’t that the name we give today to our finitude? ? Is this not the very contemporary expression of the feeling that despite all our efforts there exists the unpredictable and the inevitable? ? And isn’t this what should push us to re-examine our control over nature, even more perhaps the control of our technique? ? Isn’t this what leads us to consider our relationship with the future differently and our ability to predict ?
These questions are at the heart of the study of disasters which today tends, within the human and social sciences, to constitute a new field of research. Disasters make sense, but this meaning requires, to be grasped, to question differently our way of understanding contemporary tragedies, whether they are natural disasters, technical accidents or deliberate massacres. We must therefore endeavor to understand their meanings (how disasters affect and are perceived by those who suffer them, but also by those who experience their threats ; what they say, or do not say, about our helplessness or our failings), to evaluate their effects (the stories they tear apart, the certainties they shake, the beliefs they revive), to anticipate their return (thus questioning our relationship to scientific expertise or our capacity to act collectively).
Everyone will agree that the notion of catastrophe is fruitful for thinking about what characterizes our relationship with the contemporary. However, it is necessary to question it further as it today saturates public and media discourse to the point of sometimes making it inaudible. Where does it derive its scientific specificity and validity? ? The question arises, as the term disaster designates events as different as natural cataclysms or terrorist acts. How does the study of disasters construct its object and delimit its own field of analysis? ? It is these questions that this file intends to answer by showing the diversity of disciplinary approaches and views given today to the notion of disaster. What is undoubtedly at stake here is the creation of a new scientific paradigm, distinct from that of risk, and which marks a major shift in the way of thinking about man’s relationship to his environment, and perhaps even more so. to his abilities.
On the folder menu:
- “ Filming the end of the world », interview with Peter Szendy, December 21, 2012.
- “ The ethnography of disasters », interview with Sandrine Revet, May 24, 2012.
- Gaëlle Clavandier, “ Faced with disaster », April 19, 2011.
- Frédérique Leichter-Flack, “ Save or let die. Catastrophe and medical ethics “.
- Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, “ Lessons from disaster. Historical critique of postmodern optimism », May 13, 2011.
- Florent Guénard and Philippe Simay, “ From risk to disaster. About a new paradigm », May 23, 2011.
- Pierre Charbonnier, “ The flu, a global catastrophe ? » review by Frédéric Keck, A seized world (Paris, Flammarion, 2010), April 22, 2011.
- Lydie Cabane, “ Disaster and the welfare state », review by Romain Huret, Katrina 2005. The hurricane, the state and the poor in the United States (Paris, Editions de l’EHESS2010).
- Bernard Thomann, “ Fukushima: the lasting catastrophe », March 9, 2012.
Already in The Life of Ideas :
- Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, “ Risk and multitude. Historical reflection on the vaccine failure of 2009 », March 13, 2010.
- Jean-Baptiste Fressoz & Fabien Locher, “ The fragile climate of modernity. A brief climate history of environmental reflexivity », April 20, 2010.
- Gérôme Truc, “ September 11 and its double », September 11, 2009.
- Antoine Grandjean, “ The atomic condition », review by Günther Anders, Hiroshima is everywhereDecember 18, 2008.
- Nicolas Duvoux, “ Rise and fall of human societies: about Jared Diamond », November 26, 2007.
- Yann Bérard, “ When the event structures », review by Marc Bessin, Claire Bidart, Michel Grossetti (dir.), Bifurcations. Social sciences facing ruptures and eventsNovember 18, 2010.
- Benoît de l’Estoile, “ When the rain buries the poor. Should we move the favelas of Rio de Janeiro? ? », May 7, 2010.
Read also, elsewhere on the web:
- New Orleans after Katrina, by Jean Samuel Bordreuil & Stéphane Tonnelat, Metropolitics1er June 2011.
- ‘Catastrophe Practice’ at the New School, a panel co-presented by the Villa Gillet and n+1 at the New School, February 3, 2011.