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<font size=4 color="#0000FF"><b>How Can Academics Respond to
Katrina?<br>
</font>A Brown Bag Lunch Discussion of <i>Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy
of <br>
Disaster in Chicago </i>by<i> </i> Eric Klinenberg (U. Chicago Press,
2002) led by<br>
Mike Fischer, Hugh Gusterson, and David Jones. <br><br>
DATE: <x-tab> </x-tab>October 3, 2005<br>
TIME:<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>12:00
- 1:30<br>
LOCATION:<x-tab> </x-tab>E51-095<br><br>
</b>Natural disasters and their consequences raise many questions
that <br>
need (or at least would benefit from) STS perspectives. As we
all <br>
struggle to figure out how to respond to Katrina, Hugh, Mike, and I
<br>
thought it might be useful to get together to discuss an excellent
<br>
book that provides a possible model for analysis. In 1995 a
heat <br>
wave struck Chicago, leaving roughly 700 people dead. The
patterns <br>
of mortality bear striking similarities to New Orleans: largely
<br>
black, marginalized, elderly, in poor neighborhoods, often public
<br>
housing, with no one to turn to for help; their plight was the
<br>
outcome of decades of misguided urban policy and urban
mismanagement, <br>
etc. Sociologist Eric Klinenberg published an analysis, a
"social <br>
autopsy" of this "natural" disaster: _Heat Wave: A Social
Autopsy of <br>
Disaster in Chicago_ (U. Chicago Press, 2002).<br><br>
We will get together to discuss this book in a brown bag lunch,
<br>
Wednesday, October 5, 12-1:30, room E51-095.<br><br>
The book was extensively and controversially reviewed. For
one <br>
interesting set (available via Proquest), see the reviews in <br>
_Contemporary Sociology_, March 2004, pp. 137-156, and his angry
<br>
response in the September issue, pp. 521-528.<br><br>
For anyone interested who can't get their hands on a book, or don't
<br>
have time to read the whole thing, see Klinenberg,
"Denaturalizing <br>
Disaster: A Social Autopsy of the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave,"
_Theory <br>
and Society_ 28 (April 1999): 239-295, available via MIT
e-resources.<br><br>
And for people REALLY interested, he was interviewed on All Things
<br>
Considered on 14 August 2003, and on Fresh Air (but not by Terry
<br>
Gross) on 15 August 2002.<br><br>
Hope to see you there! Feel free to bring your lunch; we'll provide
coffee and dessert.<br><br>
David Jones<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Debbie Meinbresse<br>
STS Program, MIT<br>
617-452-2390</body>
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