Disaster recovery as a social process.

Includes bibliographical references

This paper takes the perspective that recovery from disaster is not merely concerned with the re-establishment of the physical or built environment; that is, community recovery should not be conceptualised as an outcome, but rather as a social process that begins before a disaster occurs and encompasses decision-making concerning emergency response, restoration and reconstruction activities following the disaster. Reconstruction is less a technical problem than it is a social one. In order for successful post-disaster decisions to be made, however, there must be an awareness of the pre-disaster conditions that create situations of social and structural vulnerability, putting some segments of the society at greater risk in the event of an earthquake than others. From this perspective, what becomes inportant is how those decisions are made, who is involved in the decisionmaking, what consequences those decisions have on the social groups within the disaster-stricken communities, and who benefits from these decisions and who does not