On disaster: Disciplines, domains and definitions

What are the building blocks of disasters? Are they best conceptualised as processes, as events, or a as combination of the two? And is a separation between disciplines and domains a help or a hindrance? This introductory chapter provides some initial reflections on these questions before introducing the chapters in this edited collection, in which authors have been invited to reflect on how the concept of ‘disaster’ is understood within and shaped by their field of research and practice. The chapter - just as the book - invites the reader to embrace the multifaceted and multidisciplinary context of disaster and to approach the topic of ‘defining disaster’ with an open and curious mind.