SchlagerBlog

Years ago I edited a volume for Gale called When Technology Fails. As the title implies, it covered “technological” disasters such as the Chernobyl accident, the Challenger explosion, and various bridge and ship and airplane disasters, among others. Of course, the title is somewhat of a misnomer; behind any technological failure is a human one, even if only a failure of understanding. In any event, it was an interesting volume to edit, and I’ve been thinking about it recently in light of the bridge collapse in Minnesota. If we were doing this volume today, you can be sure we would include an entry on the Minnesota disaster.

Then yesterday I received an e-mail about an upcoming conference on disasters at the New School in New York City, sponsored by the journal Social Research. The agenda for the conference can be found here.