Reimagining disasters

This introduction provides the rationale and theoretical framework for this book. It builds upon the momentum of the Disaster Studies Manifesto and draws upon the philosophy of the Tout-Monde of Edouard Glissant. Our approach is therefore pluralist. It moves away from the hegemony of Western ontologies and epistemologies in understanding harm, hardship and suffering. It relies on concepts and methodologies that reflect local people’s understanding of the world. However, our approach is neither nativist nor relativist. It rather embraces hybridity and relation across time and space. Such pluralist approach to understanding disaster is inherently a postcolonial agenda.