Disasters have been catching the attention of politicians, news reports, academics, and many others for centuries; yet the way that disasters have been framed changes significantly depending on who is talking about them and to whom. This chapter demonstrates that disasters cannot be understood without untangling unequal and often oppressive social, political, and economic systems. We argue that framing disasters as “natural”, “unexpected”, “sudden”, and “events” promotes the idea that disasters are tragic but simply inevitable and ignores their social and political origins. We discuss the concepts most widely used—and contested—to define disasters and explain why these concepts can be so problematic and indeed can often only be understood within the contextual framework of the prevailing socio-economic system.