Clinical Social Research and Disaster Recovery: Informing Inquiry, Analysis, and Intervention Following Disasters and Crises

This chapter employs C. Wright Mills’ (1959) concept of the sociological imagination to understand the role secondary trauma has in societal disruption that occurs when communities experience inadequate responses to disasters, crises, and hazardous events. The examples in this chapter will further illustrate how Clinical Social Research can be used to address secondary traumas during the post-disaster/post-crisis recovery phase following a disaster. This chapter extends the theoretical concept of Gill’s (Sociological Spectrum, 27(6): 613–632, 2007) work to advance a response to disasters in an effort to mitigate long-term secondary trauma resulting from institutional failures in response to the initial disaster or crisis events.