Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: The View from Applied Anthropology

In working with and researching in communities that have suffered the impacts of disasters or displacement over the last 40 years, the author is convinced of the need to link theory to practice in applied anthropology. The trying circumstances faced by people in disasters and displacement, as well as the enormous variation that these millions of people in their diverse contexts represent, test the resilience of real communities, the fundamental constructions they have developed about community, and the theories and methods employed to assist them in recovery. In his work, he has found that it is both appropriate and necessary that theoretical and policy oriented projects be closely linked. Forces ranging from intensified disasters, ethnic nationalism, global climate change, and globalized forms of development promise more of the same for the century they are just beginning. This paper traces the development of applied anthropological theory and method in meeting the challenges posed by such forces in the 21st century.