SOC209

Description

Section information text: In the United States and around the world, disaster risk is on the rise. Disasters may be sudden and unexpected (like an earthquake, nuclear accident, or a terrorist attack) or slow-moving in their onset and unfolding (like the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, or chronic exposures to toxic chemicals). Disasters may be triggered by forces of nature or by technological or human error. What these events share in common is their potential to cause widespread disruption and displacement, profound emotional suffering, death and injury, economic loss, and property damage. Yet such impacts do not fall evenly across communities and societies. Through an in-depth exploration of various case studies, students in this course will gain a nuanced sociological understanding of the way in which disasters are fundamentally social events that reflect, expose, and often reproduce patterns of social inequality and vulnerability.