Anthony Oliver‐smith
Biographic Data
| ID | 3616147 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anthony Oliver‐smith |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anthony |
| FAMILY NAME | Oliver‐smith |
| SIGNATURE | SMITH A O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Florida |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 528 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 53 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The social construction of disaster
The COVID-19 pandemic is a disaster, and disasters do not just happen. They are not natural phenomena or accidents of nature. They are caused. Despite constant references to “natural” disasters in the media, critical disaster research has not framed disasters as natural since the 1980s. Natural hazards certainly exist, but they are not framed as hazards until they intersect with human populations. That is to say, a hurricane in the mid-Atlantic i…
Peru’s Five-Hundred-Year Earthquake
A perspective emerged in the social scientific study of disasters in which an overall reconsideration of disasters as “extreme events” was undertaken. That is, disasters began to be interpreted less as the result of geophysical extremes such as storms, earthquakes, avalanches, droughts, and much more as functions of an ongoing social order, the structure of human environment relations, and the larger framework of historical processes that shaped …
Postscript
Understanding causality should be seen as a fundamental premise for disaster risk research as well as for disaster risk reduction practice. The increase in disaster losses is clear evidence that conventional explanations for disasters and what can be done about their causes are inadequate, frequently misleading, and may lead to inappropriate programs and insufficient funding. The basic notion behind a revitalized focus on root causes is well ackn…
Postscript
This chapter focuses on the changing nature of hazard vulnerability in California focusing on Southern California. It discusses the changing demographics of the state and in the city of Los Angeles. People’s coping capacities are in turn shaped by multiscale historical, cultural, geographic, and political economic factors that conspire to produce unequal hazard exposure in a given population and that constrain some people’s ability to withstand w…
Introduction to the Second Edition of The Angry Earth
In 1999, Routledge released the co-edited volume titled The Angry Earth: The Anthropology of Disasters , the first collection of anthropological research on disasters. In a set of contributed chapters, the book explored the phenomena of disasters from their contested definitions to their construction, unfolding, responses, recovery, and effects on communities, all through the theoretical base and substantive knowledge of anthropology. Over the pa…
Introduction to the First Edition. Anthropology and the Angry Earth
Disasters sometimes strike with the sudden impact of an earthquake or nuclear meltdown. At other times they accumulate over long periods of time with the slowness of a drought or toxic exposure. In whatever manner they arrive, abrupt or subtle, disasters are all-encompassing occurrences. In their wake they sweep across every aspect of human life: environmental, biological, and sociocultural. The anthropological study of disaster has to date been …
The Brotherhood of Pain
Social and behavioral sciences have explained or theoretically accounted for collective behavior and social solidarity in a number of ways. The dominant model in the theoretical toolkit on solidarity in social movements centers on explanations derived from the application of rational choice theory. The similarity between B. L. Turner’s portrayal of the structure of rituals and much of the behavior that marks crises is striking. The immediate post…
Postscript
In the late 1990s disaster researchers were revisiting the question of the definition of disasters. There was concern that without a succinct and mutually agreed upon definition of the research topic, the intellectual health of the field would be weakened. Debates about the relationship between nature and culture/society have been frequent and intense in anthropology. In particular, the 1970s to 1980s was a period of time in which there was consi…
Postscript
Solidarity is expressive of one of the fundamental features of humanity; that is, the duality within human life between our individuality and our social being, between self-interest and altruism or pro-social behavior. Vulnerability as a concept emerged in the 1970s and refers to the relationships between people and the total environment, including the physical setting and the sociopolitical structures that frame the conditions in which people li…
“What Is a Disaster?”
Disasters have been studied from a social scientific perspective. During this span multiple conceptual and thematic foci emerged from a variety of origins, each contributing in different ways to the overall development of the field. Ranging from Prince’s early study of a munitions explosion in Halifax harbor to studies of populations experiencing wartime bombardment to the social impacts of natural hazards and a myriad of operational definitions …
Mapping research on hydropower and sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon
The Angry Earth
Adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience
Adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience are seen today as essential in framing and developing responses to climate change, despite debates over their overall value. This chapter begins with a consideration of the use of the concepts of adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience in the framing of the challenges of climate change. It deals with the way adaptation has been used in anthropological research in general, followed by an analysis of its …
Disaster risk reduction and applied anthropology
This article reviews the conceptual development of the disaster risk reduction perspective in research in general as well as its formalization as an instrument of policy and practice at the international level. I also review current programmatic applications of disaster risk reduction in research and policy fora and assay key anthropological contributions to risk reduction policies and practice. I also consider the links between disaster risk red…
Hazards and Disaster Research in Contemporary Anthropology
Environmental migration
Framing Social-Environmental Justice by Amazonian Indigenous Peoples
Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
In working with and researching in communities that have suffered the impacts of disasters or displacement over the last 40 years, I am convinced of the need to link theory to practice in applied anthropology. The trying circumstances faced by people in disasters and displacement, as well as the enormous variation that these millions of people in their diverse contexts represent, test the resilience of real communities, the fundamental constructi…
Social Dimensions of Disaster Recovery
Research on disaster recovery has moved beyond earlier uni-dimensional, stage-oriented, and linear conceptualizations and toward approaches that recognize variability, social inequality and diversity, and disparities in recovery processes and outcomes. Theory development has been hampered by the lack of a systematic comparative focus and a failure to contextualize recovery within broader global and societal conditions and trends. Recovery theorie…
Preparing for Resettlement Associated with Climate Change
Mitigation and adaptation projects will lead to increased population displacement, calling for new research and attention to past lessons.
Revealing Root Causes
In the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters over the last quarter century, the work of Gregory Button, whose background is in both journalism and anthropology, has focused on telling the story of affected peoples but also "studying up" to reveal the political and economic interests and structures that unnecessarily render people vulnerable and turn hazards into disasters. These tasks have become more difficult in today's climate of inc…
Defying Displacement
The uprooting and displacement of people has long been among the hardships associated with development and modernity. Indeed, the circulation of commodities, currency, and labor in modern society necessitates both social and spatial mobility. However, the displacement and resettlement of millions of people each year by large-scale infrastructural projects raises serious questions about the democratic character of the development process. Although…
Haiti and the Historical Construction of Disasters
Alternatives for Sustained Disaster Risk Reduction
The daily media is filled with images of catastrophic events which seem increasingly frequent and violent. In parallel there are a large range of scientific studies, debates in the policy arena, and a growing number of international institutions focused on disaster reduction. But a paradox remains that despite advances in technology, disasters continue to increase, affecting many individuals in rich as well as poor countries
Kamp Katrina Directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon
Anthropological Research on Hazards and Disasters
Recent perspectives in anthropological research define a disaster as a process/event involving the combination of a potentially destructive agent(s) from the natural and/or technological environment and a population in a socially and technologically produced condition of vulnerability. From this basic understanding, three general topical areas have developed: (a) a behavioral and organizational response approach, (b) a social change approach, and…
Reframing disaster policy
Successes and Failures in Post-Disaster Resettlement
In this article I examine the problem of the resettlement of populations after disaster. After considering the complexity of the resettlement process in general and the reasons resettlement is often chosen by authorities following disaster, I discuss a theoretical perspective from development project resettlement which may have relevance for disaster research. This is followed by an examination of those factors in post-disaster resettlement proje…
The Martyred City
Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction and Social Inequality
In post-disaster reconstruction the social aspects of housing provision are important for the success of both emergency shelters and permanent housing, particularly in settlements that have been permanently relocated or entirety rebuilt. The social dimensions of housing reconstruction after disaster are discussed in the context of the long-term effects of reconstruction after the Yungay, Peru Earthquake-Avalanche of 1970. Consideration of these i…
Terracing and Irrigation in the Peruvian Highlands [and Comments and Reply]
The Angry Earth
Involuntary Resettlement, Resistance and Political Empowerment
The nature of resistance to resettlement is examined through a discussion of cognitive aspects as well as factors influencing or evoking resistance movements. Resettlement resistance movements vary according to strategies adopted either to resist resettlement implementation or to gain bargaining advantage for improving resettlement projects. The array of tactics which people have employed to resist resettlement is broad, including legal and illeg…
The Yungay Avalanche Of 1970
Traditional agriculture, central places, and postdisaster urban relocation in Peru1
In the aftermath of the 1970 earthquake-avalanche disaster in Peru, survivors of the devastated city of Yungay refused to let their city be relocated in a safer area. Research suggests that as well as having strong emotional ties to the site of their destroyed home, the survivors' refusal to relocate demonstrates a rational assessment of the functional prerequisites for urban growth. These folk perceptions of urban settlement parallel closely the…
Disaster risk reduction and applied anthropology
This article reviews the conceptual development of the disaster risk reduction perspective in research in general as well as its formalization as an instrument of policy and practice at the international level. I also review current programmatic applications of disaster risk reduction in research and policy fora and assay key anthropological contributions to risk reduction policies and practice. I also consider the links between disaster risk red…
The Pishtaco
THE FOLKLORE TRADITION of a culture often provides a wide spectrum of personages, ranging from supernatural, semidivine, or demonic figures to great culture heroes. These characters in folklore may serve as fruitful sources in the study of cultural patterning, personality cultural data, and value systems. One such figure, the study of which provides valuable information on intercultural relations and social conflict, is the pishtaco of the Andean…
Disaster Rehabilitation and Social Change in Yungay, Peru
Mapping research on hydropower and sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon
Planning Goals and Urban Realities
Spontaneous urban growth frequently occurs in the absence of, or in spite of, urban planning. Following a disaster, should a city be rebuilt on the model of the pre-disaster city, or should time be invested to design and construct a "better" city? Divergent images of the urban environment result from class origins, ethnicity, and other differentiating factors between planners and recipients, as well as among the recipient population in general. T…
Revealing Root Causes
In the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters over the last quarter century, the work of Gregory Button, whose background is in both journalism and anthropology, has focused on telling the story of affected peoples but also "studying up" to reveal the political and economic interests and structures that unnecessarily render people vulnerable and turn hazards into disasters. These tasks have become more difficult in today's climate of inc…
The social construction of disaster
The COVID-19 pandemic is a disaster, and disasters do not just happen. They are not natural phenomena or accidents of nature. They are caused. Despite constant references to “natural” disasters in the media, critical disaster research has not framed disasters as natural since the 1980s. Natural hazards certainly exist, but they are not framed as hazards until they intersect with human populations. That is to say, a hurricane in the mid-Atlantic i…
Framing Social-Environmental Justice by Amazonian Indigenous Peoples
Alternatives for Sustained Disaster Risk Reduction
The daily media is filled with images of catastrophic events which seem increasingly frequent and violent. In parallel there are a large range of scientific studies, debates in the policy arena, and a growing number of international institutions focused on disaster reduction. But a paradox remains that despite advances in technology, disasters continue to increase, affecting many individuals in rich as well as poor countries
Voices in the Storm
Keywords: commentary,disaster,development,ecology and environment
The Pishtaco
THE FOLKLORE TRADITION of a culture often provides a wide spectrum of personages, ranging from supernatural, semidivine, or demonic figures to great culture heroes. These characters in folklore may serve as fruitful sources in the study of cultural patterning, personality cultural data, and value systems. One such figure, the study of which provides valuable information on intercultural relations and social conflict, is the pishtaco of the Andean…
The Politics of Natural Disaster
Disaster Rehabilitation and Social Change in Yungay, Peru
Traditional agriculture, central places, and postdisaster urban relocation in Peru1
In the aftermath of the 1970 earthquake-avalanche disaster in Peru, survivors of the devastated city of Yungay refused to let their city be relocated in a safer area. Research suggests that as well as having strong emotional ties to the site of their destroyed home, the survivors' refusal to relocate demonstrates a rational assessment of the functional prerequisites for urban growth. These folk perceptions of urban settlement parallel closely the…
The Yungay Avalanche Of 1970
Involuntary Migration And Resettlement
This is a collection of studies by various authors on the problems associated with involuntary migration. The papers are grouped into three sections that are concerned with resettlement due to political upheaval resettlement due to natural disasters and movements resulting from a planned change. Consideration is given to the common stresses of dislocation and resettlement and to the similarities among situations involving involuntary migration. T…
An Andean regional economy in the world system
Benjamin S. Orlove. Alpacas, Sheep and Men: The Wool Export Economy and Regional Society in Southern Peru. New York: Academic Press, 1977. 270 pp., appendices, glossary, index, illustrations. $22.00
Terracing and Irrigation in the Peruvian Highlands [and Comments and Reply]
The Martyred City
The Martyred City
Planning Goals and Urban Realities
Spontaneous urban growth frequently occurs in the absence of, or in spite of, urban planning. Following a disaster, should a city be rebuilt on the model of the pre-disaster city, or should time be invested to design and construct a "better" city? Divergent images of the urban environment result from class origins, ethnicity, and other differentiating factors between planners and recipients, as well as among the recipient population in general. T…
Tourist Development and the Struggle for Local Resource Control
Anthony Oliver-Smith is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. Francisco Jurdao Arrows is an economist and journalist who is currently director of the magazine Mediterranean and treasurer of the Ayuntamiento of Mijas. Jose Lisbn Arcal is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social Anthropology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The research on which this article is based was carried out …
Imposing Aid
Applied Anthropology and Disaster Research and Management
Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction and Social Inequality
In post-disaster reconstruction the social aspects of housing provision are important for the success of both emergency shelters and permanent housing, particularly in settlements that have been permanently relocated or entirety rebuilt. The social dimensions of housing reconstruction after disaster are discussed in the context of the long-term effects of reconstruction after the Yungay, Peru Earthquake-Avalanche of 1970. Consideration of these i…
Involuntary Resettlement, Resistance and Political Empowerment
The nature of resistance to resettlement is examined through a discussion of cognitive aspects as well as factors influencing or evoking resistance movements. Resettlement resistance movements vary according to strategies adopted either to resist resettlement implementation or to gain bargaining advantage for improving resettlement projects. The array of tactics which people have employed to resist resettlement is broad, including legal and illeg…
Successes and Failures in Post-Disaster Resettlement
In this article I examine the problem of the resettlement of populations after disaster. After considering the complexity of the resettlement process in general and the reasons resettlement is often chosen by authorities following disaster, I discuss a theoretical perspective from development project resettlement which may have relevance for disaster research. This is followed by an examination of those factors in post-disaster resettlement proje…
Anthropological Research on Hazards and Disasters
Recent perspectives in anthropological research define a disaster as a process/event involving the combination of a potentially destructive agent(s) from the natural and/or technological environment and a population in a socially and technologically produced condition of vulnerability. From this basic understanding, three general topical areas have developed: (a) a behavioral and organizational response approach, (b) a social change approach, and…
Reframing disaster policy
Anthropology in Disaster Research and Management
This chapter contains sections titled: Background Disaster Work Reference Cited
The Angry Earth
From hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes to oil spills and nuclear accidents, natural and technological disasters have become increasingly frequent and destructive across the planet. This ground-breaking collection of essays explores how various cultures in different historical moments have responded to calamity, offering new insights into the complex relationship between society and environment. Through case studies of communities in Great Brita…
Anthropology in Disaster Research and Management
Catastrophe and Culture
Rivers for Life
A Response to the Review of “Catastrophe and Culture” by Richard W. Franke
Sociology (28 works) · Disaster Management and Resilience (27 works) · Political science (25 works) · Geography (24 works) · History (22 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Anthropology (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration (11 works) · Environmental ethics (10 works)