Some Contributions German Katastrophen-Soziologie Can Make to the Sociology of Disaster

The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the contributions the new and relatively undeveloped Katastrophensoziologie has been able to make to the sociology of disaster. The paper begins by reviewing the German criticism of some of the major figures in the sociology of disaster. The second section of the paper presents some of the possible contributions to be found in recent work within Katastrophensoziologie. Finally, the conclusion of the paper points to the scientific value of an international dialogue between scholars with different perspectives on the problem of disaster in societies.