Multidisciplinary Perspectives about Disasters

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2020 in the subject Social Studies (General), The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Núcleo de Pesquisas sobre Desastres - NUPED), language: English, abstract: The Book was organized under the responsibility of the Center Disaster Research of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte ("NUPED-UFRN"). The authors involved will be able to create their chapters in three languages, which are, English, Spanish and/or Portuguese, as a strategy for the dissemination of DRR studies made in Latin America.

As recent as it is, risk and disasters have been playing a major role within the international scientific literature. Thus, it can be observed that extreme events have caused immeasurable damages to multiple sectors of society, especially to those who encounter themselves in high social vulnerability, particularly when the Latin American reality lies within the disrespectful and neglectful actions from governments towards their citizens. The arguments of such governments are based exclusively on the phenomenon itself, i.e., the premeditated search for a naturalization of the concept of disaster, and do not consider the results derived from omission and ineffective measures.

The History has taught the scientific community that the malpractice decontextualized of this area means to unacknowledged the complexity of the field and the impacts on our daily lives. The need for a change of attitude from the scientific community and, consequently, a transformation in the paradigm regarding disasters, that means, the denaturalization of the concept. Currently, the Covid-19 Pandemic has made explicit what the government lacks to present to the public, i.e., the vulnerabilities of the system and the interests involved, since governments take ineffective measures for the prevention and control of extreme events with multiple victims.