Tsunami as Method? Recognizing Tsunami Waves, Reconfiguring Areas
Abstract
While area studies scholars classically observe geographical connectedness, there is more on offer in science and technology studies to understand the entangled, yet complex social and earth systems; and how both realms are mediated by tsunami warning system technologies. This article aims at tracing knowledge and socio-technical flows of tsunamis exemplified in different imagined ‘areas’: tsunamis risk areas as red zone, tsunami modeling as trading zone, and tsunami warning center as high-tensions zone, situated in the vastly archipelagic and geologically active Indonesia. These three vignettes represent different ‘areas’ in different ways and meanings to different social groups, local and beyond local. More importantly, these different areas or zones are mutually interconnected, beyond geographical boundaries, through tsunamis. By approaching tsunamis as a metaphoric ‘method,’ it is argued that forms of human and non-human entanglements could be better analyzed, moving away from the narrative that tsunamis are merely a killing wave.
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