Area Studies of Disaster Management: In Search of Southeast Asian Studies in the “Age of Humanitarian Assistance”

Abstract

This article portrays the development of “Area Studies of Disaster Management” since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, and discusses its significance, with focus on its relations with disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance.

The Indian Ocean tsunami ignited to connect disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance on one hand, and area studies on the other. After the tsunami, disaster management was recognized as a means of addressing social issues in international society, and disaster mitigation and reconstruction became an important agenda for international cooperation. More researchers of area studies participated in joint research activities with researchers of disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance workers. While area studies, which have traditionally been focusing on the aspects of human and social sciences, embarked on research on disaster management.

This new situation in disaster management led to recognition of the necessity of area studies in redeeming the challenges being faced by the conventional practice of disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance. Efforts have been made to apply a model of disaster mitigation based on the example of Japan and other developed countries, where advanced technologies for disaster mitigation are available, to other areas and such a model is often applied without seriously considering the local context of the recipient society. While in the field of humanitarian assistance, an international standard is being developed and implemented, which often ignores the local context of the recipient society too. The role of Area studies here is to provide new understandings of the areas which are useful for practice of disaster mitigation and humanitarian assistance.

This article mainly took up the cases of disaster management in Indonesia, and introduced two features, namely, high social flux and the role of posko or coordination posts in Indonesia. This article also discusses the fact that area studies of disaster management will enrich both area studies and the practice of disaster management, and will serve as an important analysis framework in the “age of humanitarian assistance” which is taking over the current “age of wars.”