http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/ Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:44:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/comment-page-1/#comment-94721 Crooked Timber » » Social Disasters Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:05:10 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/#comment-94721 [...] I’ve written before about the sociological dimension of disasters—the fact that natural disasters are never wholly natural, in the sense that some kinds of people will be more likely to suffer and die than others, depending on how life is organized when the disaster hits. As everyone knows, social order is under severe pressure in New Orleans at the moment, and the media coverage is slowly coming around to analyzing the differential impact of the disaster. The fact that those who have been left behind, or turned into refugees, are disproportionately Africian-American, poor, or elderly is simply impossible to ignore from the media coverage. Seeing pundits and commentators react to these facts is, in a way, a barometer of their sociological imagination—their ability to see the systematic relationship between social structure and individual experience. For example, on the conservative side of the fence, the contrast between David Brooks and Jonah Goldberg (also here) is striking. Brooks is one of nature’s optimists, and his vice is a tendency towards complaceny. But he has a sociological eye, and immediately grasps the social dimensions of the disaster: Hurricanes come in two waves. First comes the rainstorm, and then comes what the historian John Barry calls the “human storm” – the recriminations, the political conflict and the battle over compensation. Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities. … We’d like to think that the stories of hurricanes and floods are always stories of people rallying together to give aid and comfort. And, indeed, each of America’s great floods has prompted a popular response both generous and inspiring. But floods are also civic examinations. Amid all the stories that recur with every disaster – tales of sudden death and miraculous survival, the displacement and the disease – there is also the testing. [...] [...] I’ve written before about the sociological dimension of disasters—the fact that natural disasters are never wholly natural, in the sense that some kinds of people will be more likely to suffer and die than others, depending on how life is organized when the disaster hits. As everyone knows, social order is under severe pressure in New Orleans at the moment, and the media coverage is slowly coming around to analyzing the differential impact of the disaster. The fact that those who have been left behind, or turned into refugees, are disproportionately Africian-American, poor, or elderly is simply impossible to ignore from the media coverage. Seeing pundits and commentators react to these facts is, in a way, a barometer of their sociological imagination—their ability to see the systematic relationship between social structure and individual experience. For example, on the conservative side of the fence, the contrast between David Brooks and Jonah Goldberg (also here) is striking. Brooks is one of nature’s optimists, and his vice is a tendency towards complaceny. But he has a sociological eye, and immediately grasps the social dimensions of the disaster: Hurricanes come in two waves. First comes the rainstorm, and then comes what the historian John Barry calls the “human storm” – the recriminations, the political conflict and the battle over compensation. Floods wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities. … We’d like to think that the stories of hurricanes and floods are always stories of people rallying together to give aid and comfort. And, indeed, each of America’s great floods has prompted a popular response both generous and inspiring. But floods are also civic examinations. Amid all the stories that recur with every disaster – tales of sudden death and miraculous survival, the displacement and the disease – there is also the testing. [...]

]]> http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/comment-page-1/#comment-86572 Crooked Timber » » Imprints latest issue Mon, 01 Aug 2005 14:19:45 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/#comment-86572 [...] and reviews by—cue drumroll—Crooked Timber stalwarts Harry Brighouse and Kieran Healy of, respectively, Anne Alstott’s No Exit: What Parents Owe Their Children and What Society Owes Parents and Eric Klinenberg’s Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago . Kieran’s long-awaited review was pre-published here on CT . posted on Monday, August 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am Post a comment [...] [...] and reviews by—cue drumroll—Crooked Timber stalwarts Harry Brighouse and Kieran Healy of, respectively, Anne Alstott’s No Exit: What Parents Owe Their Children and What Society Owes Parents and Eric Klinenberg’s Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago . Kieran’s long-awaited review was pre-published here on CT . posted on Monday, August 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am Post a comment [...]

]]> http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/comment-page-1/#comment-64490 Chris Williams Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:34:25 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/#comment-64490 This sounds a lot like 'Death in Hamburg' by Richard Evans, which is a fine book about the last big cholera epidemic in the 1890s, and what it revealed about the way the city worked. This sounds a lot like ‘Death in Hamburg’ by Richard Evans, which is a fine book about the last big cholera epidemic in the 1890s, and what it revealed about the way the city worked.

]]> http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/comment-page-1/#comment-64321 des von bladet Wed, 23 Mar 2005 09:59:51 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2005/03/22/hot-in-the-city/#comment-64321 "ldots"? Your <code>LaTex2html</code> is showing... But this sounds fascinating; has anything comparable been done (or is it being done) for <em>le canicule</em> in France and elsewhere, does anyone know? “ldots”? Your LaTex2html is showing…
But this sounds fascinating; has anything comparable been done (or is it being done) for le canicule in France and elsewhere, does anyone know?

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