Heat Wave vs. Buffalo Creek

INTRO

An activity that we participate in on a daily basis is belonging and being part of a community. We live in a world where associating and identifying ourselves with certain groups is how we share common interests, and we are responsible for facing whatever may come our way. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the approaches seen from the Chicago Heat Wave and Buffalo Creek Flood. The main differences are historical groundwork, relationship to land, physical/social vulnerability, problematic development, choices we make and media coverage. Kleinberg and Erikson both offer a greater variety of what exactly a disaster or community consist of. Although, both have some overlapping themes and ideas, their methodological approaches and expectations of a community dealing with a disaster differ significantly.

ERIKSON’S APPROACH (historical groundwork, relationship to land, choices we make)

The most notable difference between these two approaches happens to also be a key factor within both disaster events. Erikson’s conceptual approach to studying disaster and community relies highly on historical groundwork. Erikson stresses the importance behind his approach is to be able to understand what a certain place was like at a historical time and the communication that was involved within that community. Erikson describes the mountaineer community as, “In a country with no public institutions, no townships, no systems of social control, few stable congregations, and no other associations of any kind, membership in a family unity was the only source of identification and support one had.” (p. 59) From this approach, we learned that the mountaineers had a very intensively individua...

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...fited from the integration of the other’s since Erikson’s approach integrated the key aspect of response to changing conditions, which is something the city of Chicago desperately needed to work on. And Klinenberg’s approach integrated the key aspect of construction as a public event, which, media coverage is something, the Buffalo creek flood lacked. The themes derived from both authors approaches; historical groundwork, relationship to land, choices we make, problematic development, media coverage and physical/social vulnerability allow us to generate knowledge on the loss of community and production of disaster within the social world. Although, natural disasters are inevitable, many people see them in different ways but both of these authors and approaches offer citizens take accountability and learn the degree of lessons in order to be prepared for the future.