The paper articulates the need for a paradigm shift in defining the basis of what constitutes a disaster. This new framework must be sensitive to the need for a more theoretical approach to inform disaster and hazard management. Central to this is that the resulting approach cannot be muddled in linear rational and procedural doctrines but appreciate the dynamics of complex nonlinearity of disaster events. By engaging in thought experiment and critical analysis of existing literature, the paper deconstructs the normative paradigm of defining disaster. The end is to inform disaster management and risk reduction intervention and mitigation programmes. The presented alternative approach is sensitive of the need to equally include;spatial, political, social, parameters. These are appreciated as being equally important as those dealing with ecological and economic. The resulting not only include other elements, but also expands the definition to the complex conditions inherent in the origin of phenomena to the interaction of the phenomena with multiple and complex socio-spatial and demographic dynamics, and then appreciating the complex results of this nonlinear interaction. The need for a more substantive definition of disaster underlines the pre-analysis that is necessary for implementation of mitigation and prevention strategies. That disasters are becoming more complex is synonymous with the complexities inherent in post-war development dynamics.
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