Suchergebnisse

This paper explores the social consequences, and the main characteristics, of organizational response to one of the worst earthquake disasters in world history that struck Sakhalin Island, in the Far East of Russia, in Spring 1995, completely destroying one of its communities. The paper explores and uses the generic response model as an analytical framework. This model is applied to a concrete case study and the specific social environment of Russia.

We present an extensive discussion of the linguistic, conceptual and practical issues in discussing the category of disaster. It is argued that there are two principle orientations or approaches to research, namely, an applied/pragmatic one and a theoretical/conceptual one. These are based on ontological and epistemological grounds, respectively, which serve as the main factors determining the existing differences and variations in the studying and understanding of disasters. The other reason for the variation is the logical and terminological inaccuracy of individual researchers in reasoning on disaster matters. The categories of "ecological disaster" and of "ecological disaster zones" have been selected as critical cases illustrating that issue in the theoretical approach. Also presented is the concept of disaster area as a management objective, and the classification of territories based on the depth of the destructive impact on socioecological systems, and on the types and groups in such territories. Also, briefly discussed within the framework of the pragmatic approach are the principle measures and elements of an organizational system model for mitigating disaster aftermaths.

This paper reviews the nature of large scale technological accidents in the Soviet Union, focusing upon the incident at Chernobyl. The potential for further similar scaled accidents in other types of Soviet facilities is considered. Comments are offered on the policy options available for government that would help to minimize the probability of accidents and to maximize the chance that accidents which do occur are managed effectively. Special attention is given to the issue of risk communication in Soviet society.