The term "natural disaster" is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods. However, the phrase suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed.
This new edition of At Risk confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters since it was first published, and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream development. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant root causes to unsafe conditions in a progression of vulnerability. The other uses the concepts of access and livelihood to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. The book then concludes with strategies to create a safer world.