The Gap Between Knowledge, Policy, and Practice Concerning Disaster (Part1)

CHAIR: HOFFMAN, Susanna (Hoffman Consulting)

ABSTRACT: A problem confronting every discipline with application to real human problems is the disjunction between knowledge and the policies and practices of agencies.
This is particularly true pertaining to the widespread impacts of natural and technological disasters. Much knowledge has been achieved on both disasters and the resettlement.
Yet advancing the understandings to the programs of policy-makers has provendifficult with detrimental results. As disasters and resettlement have grown tothe point that all
humanitarian aid is becoming disaster aid, this panel asks why an uneven application of knowledge to disaster mitigation persists and what strategies can overcome the abyss.

DISCUSSANT: OLIVER-SMITH, Anthony (UF)

Session Participants:
BENDER, Stephen (OAS, retired)
KOONS, Adam (IRD)
TIERNEY, Kathleen (U Colorado)
COMFORT. Louise K. (U Pitt)

Session took place in Denver, CO at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2013.