The early 1920s was an epoch making era for research on disasters, especially in the behavioural/ social science research areas. Since the first behavioural/social scientific research on disasters was tailored by Prince in 1920, research on disasters has gained popularity and importance over time with a substantial amount of literature exploring the interaction between human society and disasters. By tracing how the term “disaster” has evolved and shifted over time, the authours identify key trends in behavioural/scientific approach to disasters. The authours present a selective overview of research on disasters to synthesize the insights of the past research, and move in the direction of presenting a clear answer for the old yet new question of what disaster is and what it means. Possible directions for future research were also discussed.
