Series
Volume 8
Catastrophes in Context
Email Newsletters
Sign up for our email newsletters to get customized updates on new Berghahn publications.
Capitalism and Catastrophe
A Critical Disaster Studies Manifesto
Raja Swamy
190 pages, bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-83695-001-1 $120.00/£92.00 / Hb / Not Yet Published (June 2025)
eISBN 978-1-83695-002-8 eBook Not Yet Published
Reviews
“This is a theoretically rich and well thought- through book. It is a welcome intervention in the small subfield of disaster studies in anthropology and sociology.” • Steve Matthewman, University of Auckland
Description
Synthesizing critical perspectives on the impact of disasters in regard to social inequality, this book brings together key insights from political ecology and historical materialism. Querying assumptions about the “normal” conditions of life, it examines the exploitative structures and practices that shape everyday life using theoretical approaches including Rhythmanalysis, Metabolic Rift Theory, and Conjunctural Analysis . It argues that disasters are intimately linked to historical processes that foster contemporary unequal relationships, and should therefore include both those commonly associated with nature as well as those we consider facets of history and social conflict, such as war and destitution.
Raja Swamy is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of Building Back Better in India (University of Alabama Press, 2021). In 2022, he was bestowed the Excellence in Advising Award by the Office of the Chancellor and the Teaching Council of the Faculty Senate.