Dilemmas and perspectives of the sociological approach on natural disasters

The text examines the controversies of the sociological approach on disasters using the subsidies extracted from the sociology of science. More precisely, it considers the cognitive and political impasses inherent in the sociology of disasters through the contributions produced by the study of scientific controversies. He argues that the development of the sociological approach on disasters is structured around three controversies: (a) interdisciplinary: event-impact opposition; (b) intradisciplinary: consensus-conflict opposition; (c) extradisciplinary: lay-expert opposition. In order to overcome these obstacles, the text presents the model Problem-Solution extracted from the development on the sociology of science and technology. Based on this theoretical model aims to present a new definition of disasters. In order to develop this argument, the text was divided into five main parts: (1) it begins with a presentation of the socio-technical problems on the study of disasters; (2) follows with the presentation about the interdisciplinary controversies; (3) thereafter, the intradisciplinary controversies; (4) the extradisciplinary disputes; (5) and it ends with the formulation of a new definition of disaster.