Bankoff G
School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
Disasters. 2001 Mar;25(1):19-35. doi: 10.1111/1467-7717.00159.
Disasters seem destined to be major issues of academic enquiry in the new century if for no other reason than that they are inseparably linked to questions of environmental conservation, resource depletion and migration patterns in an increasingly globalised world. Unfortunately, inadequate attention has been directed at considering the historical roots of the discursive framework within which hazard is generally presented, and how that might reflect particular cultural values to do with the way in which certain regions or zones of the world are usually imagined. This paper argues that tropicality, development and vulnerability form part of one and the same essentialising and generalising cultural discourse that denigrates large regions of world as disease-ridden, poverty-stricken and disaster-prone.
在新世纪，灾难似乎注定会成为学术研究的重大课题，原因很简单，在日益全球化的世界中，它们与环境保护、资源枯竭和移民模式等问题紧密相连。不幸的是，人们对探讨灾害通常呈现的话语框架的历史根源以及这如何反映与世界某些地区或区域通常被想象的方式相关的特定文化价值观关注不足。本文认为，热带性、发展和脆弱性构成了同一种本质化和普遍化文化话语的一部分，这种话语将世界上大片地区贬低为疾病肆虐、贫困不堪且易受灾的地区。
