This book is is structured thematically around key approaches to disaster research from a range of different, but often complementary academic disciplines. Each chapter presents distinct approaches to disaster research that is anchored in a particular discipline; ranging from the law of disasters and disaster historiography to disaster politics and anthropology of disaster. The methodological and theoretical contributions underlining a specific approach to disasters are discussed and illustrative empirical cases are examined that support and further inform the proposed approach to disaster research.

Foreword 1. Disaster Research: An Introduction Part I: 2. Cracks in the Past: Historical Approaches to Disaster Research 3. Theology and Disaster Studies: From 'Acts of God' to Divine Presence Part II: 4. Making Sense of Disaster: The Cultural Studies of Disaster 5. The Social Life of Disasters: An Anthropological Approach 6. Natural Disasters and 7. Legal Scholarship and 8. Natural Disasters, Conflict and 9. Analyzing Communication Processes in the Disaster Cycle: Theoretical Complementarities and Tensions 10. Disaster through a Gender Lens: A Case Study from Haiti Part III 11. Organizational Accidents Theories 12. Disasters in a Sensemaking perspective: The Præstø Fjord Accident 13. Transboundary Crisis: Organization and Coordination in Pandemic Influenza Response 14. Disaster Financing in a Developing Country Context Part IV 15. Disaster mental Health: Research and Implications for Intervention Epilogue

Rasmus Dahlberg is a PhD Fellow and Co-founder of Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Olivier Rubin is Associate Professor of Disasters and Global Politics, Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Morten Thanning Vendelø is Associate Professor and Co-Founder of Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.