Abstract
Ruins serve as symbolic sites at which to re-examine people’s relationships with the past and bonds with places. In the context of the ruination caused by earthquakes and the displacement and resettlement of local residents post-disaster, this paper explores vernacular (residents’ and survivors’) memories, emotions, and senses of place triggered by the ruins of Beichuan county town, China. Results show vernacular memories of specific ruins were highly fragmented and multi-temporal. Interwoven before- and after-quake memories gave rise to complex emotions, mainly including traumatic feeling of sadness, fear, and painful nostalgia. The study further identifies people’s sense of place towards the ruined county town and finds that locals’ sense of place was not accompanied by the loss of physical dependence to the negative side; locals still expressed high levels of place identity (physical uniqueness, self-esteem, and meanings), place attachment (rootedness and emotional attachment), and positive consequences of place behaviours (protection intention and revisiting) post-earthquake. Moreover, it found that sociodemographic variables of age and length of residence in Beichuan and the variables of disaster loss had significant effect on people’s sense of place. This study balances the overriding focus on visual and representational concerns common in ruin scholarship and further reveals the complex psychological processes impacting on sense of place after large-scale disasters. The findings reflect on the relief practices of post-disaster planning and can serve to guide ruin preservation.
Highlights
How will disaster-based traumatic memories and emotions affect it? How will place-based nostalgic memories and emotions affect it? How will these conflicting and contradictory psychological process impact post-disaster sense of place? What are the features and extent of post-earthquake sense of place? Drawing on Proshansky et al.’s notion of sense of place that comprises clusters of individuals’ positively and negatively valued memories, cognitions, and emotions related to physical settings [53], this paper proposes a “memoryemotion-sense of place” framework to examine the sense of place post-disaster and further reflect on the complex relationship between ruins and former residents’ and survivors
In the case of the Beichuan ruins, participants expressed traumatic emotions towards specific earthquake-related places, they still had a positive sense of place, which included a high level of place identity and place attachment, resulting in positive place-based behaviours towards the ruins
This paper explores locals’ vernacular memories, emotions triggered by ruins, and senses of place towards the ruined county town to reveal the complex relationships between ruins and people post-disaster
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Much scholarly attention has been paid to ruins’ visual/aesthetic value and their social and symbolic meaning [6]; numerous literatures focus on the regeneration and transient function, such as turning ruins to heritage sites and dark tourism sites [2]. This paper explores residents’ and survivors’ perceptions and attitudes towards ruins to reveal the complex post-disaster relationship between locals and ruins It examines locals’ vernacular memories, emotions, and senses of place triggered by ruins to balance the overriding focus on the visual and representational concerns that dominate ruin scholarship and investigates mega-disasters’ lasting impacts that may influence the relationship between local residents and places. It reflects on the relief practices of post-disaster planning and reconstruction
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