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Methodological Issues

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Handbook of Disaster Research

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

“It’s the same, only it’s different.” This sounds like one of former American baseball player Yogi Berra’s malapropisms. Nevertheless, it is appropriate when discussing methods of disaster research. Fifty years ago, Lewis Killian (2002 [1956]) stated it this way: “Basically, the methodological problems of field studies in disasters are those common to any effort to conduct scientifically valid field studies in the behavioral sciences. The disaster situation itself, however, creates special or aggravated problems . . . ” (p. 49). The basic tools of disaster researchers—a theory, a working hypothesis, an appropriate research design, a plan for selecting cases for study, a strategy for gathering data or recording observations, and a way to extract meaning from the materials collected—are easily recognizable as those used in all of the social sciences. Yet, issues specific to disaster research need to be addressed.

Special thanks to Jo Karabasz for making sure that the author stayed with this project until it was completed. Conversations with Kathleen Tierney and Dennis Wenger greatly aided the updating of certain aspects of this chapter. Linda Bourque provided information and answered key questions about recent methodological issues in survey research. Each is herewith acknowledged without in any way being implicated in the resulting product. Comments and suggestions from the tri-editors were helpful in improving this chapter and are greatly appreciated, even though not every one of them was followed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Robert A. Stallings

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© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Stallings, R.A. (2007). Methodological Issues. In: Handbook of Disaster Research. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32353-4_4

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