Disaster Science and Technology Studies (DSTS): Advancing an Emerging Subfield

该奖项将资助为期两天的灾害科学与技术研究跨学科研讨会。灾害科学与技术研究是科学与技术研究的一个新兴分支。研讨会将于2013年夏末或秋季举行。在美国和世界范围内，灾害的频率和严重程度都在增加；许多是由技术系统和进程造成或制约的。灾害还引发了大量的工程和科学活动，包括基础研究和应用研究、政策创新、技术开发等；对政府、行业、法律体系、社区和其他机构如何应对灾害、风险管理、应急响应和长期恢复具有重要影响的活动。然而，迄今为止，在社会科学家为理解科学和技术的社会动态而发展起来的概念、理论和方法与关于灾害动态的丰富但在很大程度上尚未开发的经验数据之间仍然存在着迫切的差距。研讨会试图弥补这一差距。本工作坊旨在推动科技的发展。它将以各种方式做到这一点。首先，它汇集了北美的DSTS学者来批判性地评估新兴领域的状态。讲习班计划的一部分是组织一个能够在国内和国际上迅速扩展的动态发展sts研究网络，并制定一个强调反思、比较和合作研究的研究议程。该研讨会还将制定资助和推广战略，以支持DSTS研究，并向更大的灾害研究界和决策者传播知识。可能产生的更广泛的影响讲习班组织者将通过讲习班报告、新闻稿和向研究人员、记者和决策者提供的其他外联方式，准备和传播发展与科学技术研究所的研究结果。他们亦会建立一个网站，方便工作坊参加者之间的沟通和分享意见，并在工作坊结束后，支持持续发展公共服务系统。

IntroductionThis award will support a two-day interdisciplinary workshop on Disaster Science and Technology Studies (DSTS), an emerging subfield of STS. The workshop will take place in late summer or fall 2013. The frequency and severity of disasters are increasing in the United States and worldwide; many are caused or conditioned by technological systems and processes. Disasters also unleash a torrent of engineering and scientific activity, including basic and applied research, policy innovations, technology development, etc.; activities that have important implications for how governments, industries, legal systems, communities, and other institutions deal with disaster, risk management, emergency response, and longer-term recovery. To date, however, there remains a pressing gap between the concepts, theories and methods that social scientists have developed to understand the social dynamics of science and technology and the rich but largely untapped body of empirical data on the dynamics of disasters. The workshop seeks to remedy this gap.Intellectual MeritThis workshop will serve to promote the development of DSTS. It will do so in a variety of ways. First, it brings together North American DSTS scholars to critically assess the state of the emerging field. Part of the workshop plan is to organize an active DSTS research network capable of rapid domestic and international expansion, and to develop a research agenda that emphasizes reflexive, comparative, and collaborative studies. The workshop will also generate strategies for funding and outreach that supports DSTS research and communicates knowledge to the larger disaster research community and to policymakers.Potential Broader ImpactsThe workshop organizers will prepare and circulate the results of DSTS research through a workshop report, and through press releases and other outreach to researchers, journalists, and policy makers. They will also create a website to facilitate communication and idea sharing among workshop participants and to support continued development of DSTS beyond the workshop.