Resumo

ALTEZ, Rogelio. Cycles and Systems versus Processes: Contributions for a Debate with the Functionalist Approach to Risk Management. Desacatos [online]. 2009, n.30, pp.111-128. ISSN 2448-5144.

The discourse on disasters, risk and vulnerabilities, used in academic fields and the applied sciences realm, has been consolidated over the last two decades as the result of multiple efforts by different disciplines that reflect on the relationship between society and nature. The functionalist discourse has been the common epistemological matrix of this scientific platform, and its perspective covers and shares a good deal of the logic used in all scientific areas. This paper reviews the presence (not always acknowledged) of functionalism in the most representative arguments within the discourse about risk, in an attempt to generate a discussion on the epistemological and interpretative background of the academic thought that constructs and applies this discourse.

Palavras-chave : risk; functionalism; disasters; social construction; culture.