Cécile Stephanie Stehrenberger is presenting a working paper on 'Praktisches Wissen, Wissenschaft und Katastrophen. Zur Geschichte der sozialwissenschaftlichen Katastrophenforschung, 1949-1989'

During the second half of the 20th Century several US-American social science „disaster research groups“ conducted field studies after earthquakes, factory explosions and “racial riots”. Their aim was to provide practical knowledge that could be applied in the planning and managing of future disasters of both peace- and wartime nature. In this paper, I will elaborate on how this research goal conflicted with some scientists’ aspirations to develop more theoretical knowledge, and how, more generally, it endangered disaster research’s “scientificity”. I will also show how the generated research results came to be ‘impractical knowledge’, which was difficult or impossible to apply. Furthermore this paper analyzes the scientific practices that were involved at different stages of the knowledge production process and contributed to disaster research’s ‘precarious’ character.