#27 COVIDCalls 4.21.2020 – What Should We Learn from COVID-19 with Kathleen Tierney

What are the long term effects of disaster on society? What were the lessons of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina and to what extent were they heeded?  Dr. Kathleen Tierney, Professor Emerita of Sociology and former director of the Natural Hazard Center at University of Colorado-Boulder, discusses how her long career in disaster research informs her view of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a wide ranging discussion Dr. Tierney talks about how disasters are a “never-ending kaleidoscope” of societal issues, and how vulnerability has social roots. She also talks about the capacity for prosocial response to disaster and how the current neoliberal political economy limits resilience. Dr. Tierney also argues that good disaster planning will require a paradigm shift in how we understand vulnerability. For further reading: The Social Roots of Risk: Producing Disasters, Promoting Resilience “The Red Pill” “The ‘Mother of All Rorschachs’: Katrina Recovery in New Orleans” A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster “Disaster as war: Militarism and the social construction of disaster in New Orleans”