[Book Review]: "Understanding and Addressing Disaster Risk"

Abstract

In the past half-century, the sociology of disaster has undergone a paradigmatic shift, moving from a hazard-centric physicalism to a nuanced understanding of social vulnerability. This transformation was cemented by the assertion that “disasters are not natural,” a thesis famously articulated in the seminal 1994 text At Risk (Blaikie et al., 1994). Ben Wisner, a co-author of that landmark work, returns in Understanding and Addressing Disaster Risk alongside a distinguished cohort of scholars—Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, JC Gaillard, Ilan Kelman, and Victor Marchezini. This volume does not merely reiterate established critiques but expands the theoretical horizon to confront the “chronic societal processes” that manufacture risk (Wisner et al., 2025, p. 4). By interrogating the intersection of power, colonial legacies, and capitalist development, the authors offer a rigorous examination of why disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives frequently fail to arrest the accumulation of catastrophe. This review evaluates the book’s contribution to the field, focusing on its theoretical innovations regarding “Disaster Risk Construction” (DRC) and the tensions inherent in its proposed solutions...