Citation

Williams BD, Webb GR. Disasters 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science, University of North Texas.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12422

PMID

31714606

Abstract

This research seeks to understand how local emergency managers perceive and define social vulnerability. While there has been a significant increase in research on social vulnerability recently, little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is being translated into practice. To address that void, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a sample of local emergency managers (N=24), asking them to describe what social vulnerability means to them. The analysis identified four primary perspectives on social vulnerability prevalent in the sample. These include social vulnerability as: (1) culture and poverty, (2) a moral imperative, (3) lack of security, and (4) lack of knowledge and awareness. Although these practitioner perspectives may not align perfectly with the definitions of social vulnerability prevalent in the hazards and disaster research literature, the results of this study do suggest a possible narrowing of the gap between research and practice as it relates to social vulnerability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en