Description

How to study disasters? How can researchers find ways to 'capture' the complex and multiple consequences which disasters have for the communities affected?

When the 2001 Foot & Mouth Disease epidemic struck rural Britain, policymakers and researchers realised that there was no documented social history to show how people had lived through the previous large-scale outbreak of 1967. The 'Health & Social Consequences of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic' was an in-depth longitudinal diary based study which has provided detailed documentation of the effect of the disaster on the daily lives of a wide range of those affected: farmers, farm workers, rural health workers, teachers, clergy, hauliers, people in small rural business and all manner of related rural occupations. Many of the accounts provided by these respondents have now been archived for public access. An introduction to what is a very large archive of rural life in the period following the disaster is provided in a new website: www.footandmouthstudy.org.uk

Readers can play back some of the archived sound material through this site and see some of the diary extracts. They can also add their own accounts to the archive by accessing the 'Tell Your Story' function. The researchers hope that this 'living archive' will be widely used and underpin future research design and teaching about disasters and a greater understanding of the social impact of policies of disease containment.The full electronic data set has been acquired as a 'classic study' by the ESRC's UK Data Archive for the purpose of secondary research and further academic study: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=5407 The original material including sound and hand written diaries have been archived at Lancaster University's Rare Book Archive and can be reviewed by arrangement with the archivist: http://libweb.lancs.ac.uk/rba.htm

The original study was undertaken by the Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, which received funding from the Department of Health. The views expressed in the publications are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Health. Further funding for a public dissemination conference was provided by Lancaster University Friends Fund, and for archiving the material from Cumbria County Council.