Disaster Makers: Tackling Unmanaged Growth for Sustainable Futures

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Drawing on decades of on-the-ground experience, a strong body of existing research on the social construction of risk, and his own academic research, Terry Gibson demonstrates the transformative potential of current debates around de- and re-growth for disaster studies. Some disasters are highly visible to us all, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the climate emergency. Many more are hidden, everyday disasters grinding down the lives of the poor and vulnerable. Very few of these disasters just happen. Most are caused by those who create risk faster than they can mop it up, by those who pursue reckless, unmanaged economic growth that demands ever-increasing manufacture, consumption, building, food production, and energy consumption. These are the disaster makers. In this book, Gibson provides a thorough, sophisticated, yet accessible account of who the disaster makers are, what they do, and how we can do things better. Ultimately, Gibson demonstrates the urgency of replacing growth-based economics with a fundamentally different social and economic model. This is more than a dream. As Gibson shows, it becomes a practical possibility the moment enough of us commit to building a movement.

Author Bio

Terry Gibson is a researcher and practitioner in the disasters, development, and corporate responsibility industries. For eight years, he acted as director of Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction. Has published a wide range of papers and chapters, as well as the book Making Aid Agencies Work (2019), and he runs the website inventing-futures.org.