DeMond Shondell Miller

THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND RISK PERCEPTION ON THE HURRICANE EVACUATION DECISION-MAKING OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS

This article contributes to the current discussion on how residents living in vulnerable areas make the decision to evacuate when they are in harms way. Key in this discussion is the question, what role does information and risk play in shaping evacuation behavior? This study used a sample of respondents from the greater New Orleans region (Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes) of the Twelve Parish Survey (N = 1,207) conducted prior to Hurricane Katrina. The findings indicate that information sources are vitally important in the evacuation process. By examining the role of information from authorities, family, and friends; visual imagery; and the media we found that individuals use a variety of sources when they decide to evacuate. Further, the importance of visual imagery in the evacuation process is discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of information dissemination and its importance to members of the media and public policy makers.

Middle school bullying as a context for the development of passive observers to the victimization of others

SUMMARY School bullies create a climate of fear and intimidation that may affect not only those students who are the direct targets of the bullying but also the secondary victims (i.e., those students who witness the victimization of peers). Results from a survey of New Jersey middle school students indicate that eighth graders were significantly more indifferent to bullying and less sympathetic to victims than fifth graders. Older students were also more likely to identify themselves as outsiders and bullys assistants in bullying situations. In the absence of bullying prevention programs, witnesses to peer aggression become less willing to intervene on behalf of victims and more indifferent to the distress of the victim. The implications of these findings for the prevention of bullying and the achievement of civic responsibility are discussed.

Disaster tourism and disaster landscape attractions after Hurricane Katrina

Purpose – The papers primary goals are three‐fold: to explore how disaster tourism serves as a vehicle for self‐reflection in respect to how the disaster tour affects the tourist; to understand how cultures adapt to abrupt change; and to understand how the tourism industry can lead to the cultural and economic revitalization of devastated areas.Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on sociological theory, experience, and participant observation to complete an autoethnographic study of a “disaster tour” in and around the New Orleans, Louisiana, metropolitan area.Findings – Conveying information via auto‐ethnographic disaster tourism helps readers develop an understanding of others by being immersed in the tour experience. Placing the researchers in the midst of the analysis presents a perspective of the cultural mix of New Orleans as place set apart, even among places in the south. Finally, this study highlights the importance of a rapidly rebounding tourism industry by “branding” New Orleans as ...

Continually Neglected: Situating Natural Disasters in the African American Experience

It is perplexing why natural disasters, as important life-altering events, are seldom viewed as a catalyst for social change in the United States in general but particularly for African Americans. This article addresses a gap in literature by proposing natural disasters as a variable to help understand the African American experience. The authors argue that the first post-Civil War migration altered the life courses for many. Subsequent to the first migration wave (the Great Migration of 1916-1930), environmental factors altered many African American lives. Natural disasters such as The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, The 1948 Vanport Flood, and Hurricane Katrina illustrate the federal government’s indifference and neglect of responsibility, which played a role in decisions to migrate. These major natural environmental disasters, when situated in historical context as a part of the social, political, geographical, and economic landscape, are vital in the understanding of the African American experience.

Hallowed Ground, Place, and Culture: The Cemetery and the Creation of Place

Throughout most recorded history, human societies have used various types of cemeteries for burial purposes; this theme points to humanity’s need to construct a meaning behind death and reflect life into the places where the dead are interred. Whether the bodies of the deceased are placed in the ground, within elaborate tombs, or simply in the presence of ancient or contemporary monuments, their location holds symbolic meaning as well as practical historical meaning for the surrounding living community. This article explores cemetery culture and architecture and their contribution to the social construction of the cemetery landscape. After exploring the historical development of the modern cemetery, the cemeteries of New Orleans, Louisiana, are used as a case study to illustrate how the cemetery, as a place, is influenced by culture and has cultural significance.

When death is the destination: the business of death tourism – despite legal and social implications

Purpose – This paper views the growing popularity of death tourism which directs the confrontation with grief and mortality with the expressed purpose of orchestrating travel that culminates in assistance to end ones life. The specific aims of this paper are to describe the emerging phenomenon of death tourism and situate it as a form of dark tourism, to present briefly the social and legal aspects of assisted suicide in conjunction within the tourism industry, and to conclude with how the trend of death tourism is potentially spreading to other countries beyond Europe.Design/methodology/approach – By employing a variety of primary and secondary resources, from death tourism industry documents, legal statutes, and news reports, this study explores the propositions of this article.Findings – Whereas much of the contemporary research in dark tourism focuses on sights, experiences, and actual memorialization, death tourism tends to comprise a holistic view of the emerging phenomenon by viewing supply and de...

Visualizing the Corrosive Community: Looting in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

After visiting his home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the author is confronted with a newly configured landscape and a new social reality marked by a culture of distrust and a decline in social capital among residents. The comments here view one aspect of the corrosive community impact: the decline in civic trust, more specifically, trust and interaction among neighbors. One indicator of this distrust is evidenced by signs posted to limit illegal activity. These signs are posted throughout New Orleans and the surrounding areas to deter looters from the outside and looters from “within.”

Disaster Vulnerability Education: A New Focus on Disaster Education Across the Curriculum

Disaster risk in the global context is becoming more prevalent in political, economic, social, and academic discourses. With increasing media coverage over the past few years, natural disasters have been recognized as events containing a host of social, political, and psychological ramifications, which oftentimes highlight, at the local, regional, and national level, peoples ability to deal with natural disasters. According to the United Nations and other international educational and accredited bodies, there is an increasing need to educate both current and future generations on the significance of disaster risks. Due to significant risks posed to society by the increasing number of environmental disasters, this work is important because it encourages an understanding of the risks posed by disasters and crisis as a part of educational strategies to raise civic awareness by building instruction into lower-level undergraduate education within the general education curriculum at institutions of higher learning.

Phoenix tourism within dark tourism: Rebirth, rebuilding and rebranding of tourist destinations following disasters

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the knowledge gap in the field of dark tourism by understanding the phenomena of phoenix tourism, which focuses on the transformation and rebirth of places following death and disasters. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on existing theoretical understanding of dark tourism and disaster recovery to explore destination image recovery within the tourism industry. It uses phoenix tourism as a lens to understand the social, cultural and economic context of post-disaster tourism destination recovery and rebranding in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Findings A presentation of post-disaster strategies and recommendations are given with attention to the re-branding of images once associated with death and darkness to enhance a destination’s resilience. Practical Implications For local policymakers, tourism leaders, researchers and community developers, this research describes strategies that facilitate rebranding dark tourism sites, such as areas of rebirth or “phoenix tourism”, to enhance destination recovery image and to promote a more disaster- and risk-resilient tourism industry. Originality/value This paper bridges the knowledge gap by defining and contributing to the theoretical understanding of phoenix tourism as it identifies the what, how and why elements of the phenomena of phoenix tourism. Furthermore, the authors propose how to overcome negative destination images to preserve, present or redefine an image of a tourist destination “overcoming”, and eventual “rebirth” serves to re-calibrate resilience of the tourism industry and regional redevelopment.

Public trust in the aftermath of natural and na-technological disasters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze public trust during the aftermath of technological and hybrid natural-technological/natech disasters – Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in Japan (2011). The work identifies common themes, actions and inactivity that can lead to citizens distrusting the government after disasters. Design/methodology/approach – News reports from the two areas leading newspapers formed the body of the Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown case studies. Of key interest were emerging themes of trust and/or distrust during the immediate impact phase of the disaster in addition to government failures and social breakdowns resulting in a loss of trust in government institutions and individual leaders. Findings – The series of examples illustrate how specific action or in-action by local and federal governments served as a catalyst for a loss of trust in government institutions and individual leaders in government while prop...