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

该奖项将支持为期两天的灾害科学与技术研究(DSTS)跨学科研讨会，DSTS是灾害科学与技术研究的一个新兴分支领域。研讨会将于2013年夏末或秋季举行。在美国和全世界，灾害的频率和严重程度正在增加；许多灾害是由技术系统和过程引起或制约的。灾害还引发工程和科学活动的洪流，包括基础和应用研究、政策创新、技术开发等；对政府、行业、法律系统、社区和其他机构如何应对灾害、风险管理、应急反应和长期恢复具有重要影响的活动。然而，到目前为止，社会科学家为理解科学和技术的社会动态而开发的概念、理论和方法与关于灾害动态的丰富但基本上未被利用的经验数据之间仍然存在着紧迫的差距。该研讨会旨在弥补这一差距。智力价值该研讨会将有助于促进DSTS的发展。它将以各种方式做到这一点。首先，它将北美DSTS学者聚集在一起，对新兴领域的状况进行批判性评估。研讨会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活跃的DSTS研究网络，并制定一个强调反身性、可比性和协作性研究的研究议程。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社区和政策制定者传播知识。潜在的更广泛的影响研讨会组织者将通过研讨会报告、新闻稿和向研究人员、记者和政策制定者进行其他推广，准备和传播DSTS研究成果。他们还将创建一个网站，以促进讲习班参与者之间的沟通和思想交流，并支持在讲习班之外继续发展数字科学技术。

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.