Mainstream quantitative analysis and simulations are fraught with difficulties and intrinsically unable to deal appropriately with the issue of long-term macroeconomic effects of disasters. In this new book, Jose-Miguel Albala-Bertrand develops the themes introduced in his past book, The Political Economy of Large Natural Disasters (Clarendon Press, 1993) to show that societal networking and (economic) disaster localization are part of an essential framework to understand disaster effects and responses.The author's last book argued that disasters were a problem of development not for development; this book takes the argument forward both in terms of the macroeconomic effects of disaster and development policy, arguing that economy and society are not inert things, but living organisms.