Sociology

The nature and process of research, selection and formulation of a research problem. Research design: explanatory and descriptive studies, testing of hypothesis. Problems of measurement. Data collection: observational methods, questionnaires and interviews, projective and other indirect methods. Use of available data as source material. Scaling techniques. Sampling. Analysis and interpretation; establishment of categories, coding, tabulation, statistical analysis. The use of non-quantified data in analysis and interpretation. The research report.

• History of the social science study of disaster • What can anthropology tell us about disaster? • What is a disaster? Types and causes • Differences between hazard, emergency, disaster, catastrophe • Anthropology of disaster: context, community, aftermath, coping, change & adaptation • Social science theories of disaster: behaviorist or functionalist; hazard approach; political economy approaches and the notions of ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’ • Disaster and gender, caste, class, race and ethnicity • What can disasters tell us about anthropology?