Social vulnerability and disaster: understanding the perspectives of practitioners

This paper seeks to understand how local emergency managers perceive and define social vulnerability. There has been a significant increase recently in the amount of research on social vulnerability, yet little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is being translated into practice. To address this void, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with a sample of local emergency managers (N=24), asking them to describe what social vulnerability means to them. The analysis identified four primary perspectives on social vulnerability prevalent in the sample, pertaining to: (i) culture and poverty; (ii) a moral imperative; (iii) a lack of security; and (iv) a lack of knowledge and awareness. Although these practitioner viewpoints may not align perfectly with the definitions of social vulnerability predominant in the hazards and disasters literature, the results of this study do suggest a possible narrowing of the gap between research and practice as it relates to social vulnerability.