New Directions Disaster Anthropology: Decolonization, Diversification, Overcoming Disengagement and the ‘Death of Theory’

Abstract (English)

Critical examination of recent and longstanding approaches to the study of disasters is fundamental for rethinking how anthropologists can improve the ways in which they engage with those affected by them. This paper critically explores recent efforts to diversify and de-colonialize disaster anthropology, attempts to address public disengagement with disaster in post-Covid 19 western contexts, and a crisis said to have emerged within disaster anthropology itself – that of the ‘death of theory’.

This paper explores how although diversification and decolonization efforts have resulted in important new understandings and methodological innovations, imbalances of power remain owing to their lack of centralisation. Superficial adoption of the language of diversification and decolonization also risks enhancing the potential of these terms for abuse. Furthermore, by utilizing a deep cultural perspective to examine framings in disaster scholarship development, I highlight how predominant scholarly discourses, practices and structures are themselves imbued with norms and values that reinforce inequalities of participation, representation and outcomes, and how failure to acknowledge this hinders efforts to engage and re-engage marginalised people and disenchanted publics with disaster scholarship and action. However, illumination of the ways in which voices become excluded I argue can prove helpful for providing a foundation for more inclusive and open dialogues for generating and centring new understandings. In addition, while recent discussions question whether disaster anthropology is experiencing a ‘death’ or hiatus in the development of theoretical scholarship, I argue by exploring theory as both a concept and practice alongside evidence of what means to contemporary junior scholars to engage with and develop theory that scholarly theoretical engagement remains alive and well, albeit with some important caveats. However, critical discussion and reframing of the concept and practice of theory to acknowledge the power it imbues may prove helpful for overcoming concerns about its exclusionary potential.