Wake Of Disaster Research Articles

Defiant Joy and Care-Based Solidarity in Puerto Rican Theatre

On 7 September 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall on Puerto Rico. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Recovery efforts and repairs were still underway by the time the island was rocked by a series of earthquakes in early 2020. By 15 March 2020, a lockdown was instituted due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Mass migration, austerity measures, neoliberal privatization and a perpetual battle against colonialism have exacerbated these traumas. Repeated disaster, both natural and unnatural, leave Puerto Rican communities in a continuous loop of preparing and recovering. In the wake of disaster, the San Juan-based theatre collective Y no había luz (f. 2005), has functioned as both survivor and witness, enduring traumatic events themselves even as they assemble to assist those in need. In this article, I draw upon fieldwork I conducted in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Imani Perry’s concept of defiant joy to argue that Y no había luz forms a legacy of solidarity that persists through the mobilization of defiant joy in disaster response. Moreover, in collaborating with each other and with intergenerational communities, Y no había luz creates multidisciplinary performances of care that are characterized by joy, whimsy, and celebration. In multiple iterations of familiar narratives, the collective activates afterlives for stories that extend beyond performance to give community participants access to reenact, reshape, and re-remember events. These collective experiences produce a solidarity model of care and a shared understanding among and between artists and communities. Through acts of defiant joy, Y no había luz produces mutually beneficial and sustainable expressions of care-based solidarity in virtual and in-person spaces.

When do disasters spark transformative policy change and why?

Floods, earthquakes, droughts, and other recurrent disasters around the globe have sparked renewed interest in whether and how disasters can be leveraged as turning points for transformation toward more sustainable and resilient societies. As the transformative potential of disasters increasingly gains prominence in different research fields, it is important to describe how different scientific approaches view the relationship. This article synthesises key insights from the policy sciences and public administration scholarship regarding the link between disruptive disaster events and policy activity aiming towards societal transformation. Key explanatory perspectives are discussed, including dynamics associated with institutional crisis, policy subsystems, agenda-setting and issue salience, governance capacity, policy-oriented learning and concentration of power, and situated in relation to four scenarios of potential disaster impacts on policymaking aiming at transformation. The results of this synthesis seek to enhance our understanding of when disasters may spark transformative change. Based on these findings, the article identifies priorities for future research into policymaking in the wake of disaster.

Reproducing the Gender Order in the Wake of Disasters. Revisiting a Case Study on a Mudslide Disaster in Austria

Abstract While disasters are considered a rupture of the established gender order, they rarely result in its profound change. This paper contributes to a proper understanding of its perpetuation. It suggests to take a disaster as a framework for action that is symbolically shaped by gender expectations. Within this framework, the gender order is reproduced through practices that affirm and reinforce these expectations and, thus, impede the gender-neutralising potential of a practical deviation from these expectations. This is illustrated by revisiting 20 guided interviews from a case study on a mudslide disaster in Austria.

Is social capital underproduced?

Is social capital likely to be underproduced without state action? Where previous analysts have typically argued that social capital is a public good and, therefore, needs government action to be produced at an optimal level, we argue that social capital is not a public good because though often non-rivalrous, it is almost always excludable. As such, social capital is more appropriately conceived of as a club good. Further, we argue that governments are not likely to be in a position to improve a society’s social capital due to epistemic limits and the complexity of social capital. Finally, we argue that rather than a state solution, solutions to social capital-related problems are best solved through a bottom-up process. As we demonstrate throughout, this has implications for how we understand community resilience in the wake of disasters. The key role that social capital plays in facilitating community rebound after disasters has been widely acknowledged. If social capital is a public good, then policymakers could be justified in focusing on cultivating social capital as a strategy for promoting community resilience. If social capital is a club good and there are limits to top-down strategies for creating social capital, however, then social capital creation is not an available policy lever.

Intersectional vulnerability in post-disaster contexts: lived experiences of Dalit women after the Nepal earthquake, 2015.

Through a narrative-based ethnographic study of the Nepal earthquake of 2015, this study aims to comprehend Nepali women's experiences of relief and rehabilitation. It adopts an intersectional approach to vulnerability and privileges the voices of marginalised women in post-disaster contexts. The paper draws out some troubling experiences, including stories of rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, illegal trafficking, prostitution, self-harm, and suicide. These cases are more pronounced among Dalit women, who also face institutionalised violence in the form of unequal access to aid, dignity kits, and safe spaces, among other resources. Such discrimination makes Dalit women from poor socioeconomic backgrounds more vulnerable in post-disaster settings. In the case of Nepal, relief and rehabilitation processes failed to understand and address intersectional vulnerability, and in some ways, became part of the problem. By examining the accounts of women from different castes and classes, this paper argues, therefore, for an intersectional approach to investigating vulnerability in the wake of disasters.

Narratives in the Wake of Disaster: Comparing the 2018 Hokkaido and 2021 Texas Power Grid Failures

Narratives in the Wake of Disaster: Comparing the 2018 Hokkaido and 2021 Texas Power Grid Failures

Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a public mobile app to reduce symptoms of postdisaster distress in adolescent wildfire survivors: Sonoma rises.

In October 2017, Northern California experienced devastating and historic wildfires leaving the community in need of support to foster emotional resilience during the recovery process. Adolescents represent a particularly vulnerable population in the wake of disaster, and digital mental health interventions may hold promise for reaching teens at scale. The present study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a mobile mental health app for disaster, Sonoma Rises. A multiple-baseline single-case experimental design (SCED) utilizing a research-enabled version of the app was employed with seven adolescents who experienced significant damage to their homes and schools in the wildfires. Participants completed daily mood ratings, weekly measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, psychosocial functioning, and then pre-post-measures of anxiety, depression, wellbeing, sleep, academic engagement, and perceived social support as well as quantitative and qualitative measures of intervention satisfaction and feasibility. Sonoma Rises was found to be feasible in terms of engagement, satisfaction, and likelihood of recommending to a friend. During the study, another wildfire occurred and all participants underwent a prolonged mandated evacuation and were subject to a series of extended power outages. Uptake of the publicly available version of the Sonoma Rises app among the general population was modest but engagement among users was sustained. Lessons learned are offered to contribute to the science and practice of building, disseminating, and implementing digital tools to conduct more equitable disaster mental health outreach and research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing the Intermediate Function of Local Academic Institutions During the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh, Indonesia

There is great scholarly and practical interest in local academic institutions’ potential contributions to community rehabilitation and reconstruction in the wake of disasters. Using survey data, this study seeks to quantitatively verify the intermediate function of local academic institutions in building mutual understanding and consensus between local residents and external actors during disaster recovery efforts. The survey measured Indonesians’ perceptions of disaster relief efforts following the Sumatran earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. It was conducted by Syiah Kuala University Aceh, Indonesia, between July and October 2020. The authors applied parametric methods to analyze the data, including regression analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM). The analysis results reveal a relationship between the intermediate function of local academic institutions, and residents’ overall satisfaction with disaster recovery efforts. The findings suggest that the institutions’ expected intermediate functions may be influenced by regional factors, and that future policy-makers should consider regional characteristics to improve the efficacy of local disaster response and recovery efforts.

Friendship, kinship and social risk management strategies among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda

This paper describes risk-pooling friendships and other social networks among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda. Social networks are of critical importance for risk management in an environment marked by volatility and uncertainty. Risk management or risk pooling mainly takes the form of “stock friendships”: an informal insurance system in which men established mutually beneficial partnerships with unrelated or related individuals through livestock transfers in the form of gifts or loans. Friends accepted the obligation to assist each other during need, ranging from the time of marriage to times of distress. Anthropologists and economists claim that social networks are critical for recouping short-term losses such as food shortage, as well as for ensuring long-term sustainability through the building of social capital and rebuilding of herds. To this end, I present ethnographic data on friendship, kinship, and other networks among male and female pastoralists in Karamoja. Using qualitative and quantitative data on these relationships and norms of livestock transfers and other mutual aid, I show the enduring importance of social networks in the life of Karamoja’s pastoralists today. I also demonstrate how exchange networks were utilized by participants during a drought. On this basis, I argue that appreciating historical and traditional mechanisms of resilience among pastoralists is vital for designing community-based risk management projects. I discuss how traditional safety net systems have been used successfully by NGOs to assist pastoralists in the wake of disaster, and how the same can be done by harnessing risk-pooling friendships in Karamoja.

Conceptualising disaster social capital: what it is, why it matters, and how it can be enhanced.

Social capital discourse occupies an important place in disaster studies. Scholars have adopted various inflections of social capital to explain how those with greater amounts of this crucial resource are generally more resilient to disasters and experience speedier recovery. Disaster scholars have also discovered that people typically display altruistic tendencies in the wake of disasters and develop novel networks of mutual support, known as 'communitas', which is also seen to build resilience and boost recovery. In this paper, we use the work of Pierre Bourdieu to synthesise these literatures, conceptualising communitas as 'disaster social capital'. We offer a fleshed-out definition of disaster social capital to distinguish it from regular social capital and discuss the barriers to, and the enablers of, its formation. While primarily a conceptual discussion, we believe that it has practical and policy value for disaster scholars and practitioners interested in inclusive disaster risk reduction as well as full and just recoveries.

Educating nursing students for cultural competence in emergencies: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundRacial and ethnic minorities suffer significantly more than others in the wake of disasters. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of culturally competent health services, systematic cultural competence training in the medical education system is still scarce, especially in the field of emergency. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an online culturally informed intervention for increasing cultural competence in emergencies among nursing students.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was used to test the intervention effectiveness in increasing nursing students’ cultural competence in four domains: attitudes, knowledge, skills, and encounters. The study included 72 undergraduate nursing students recruited from two academic institutes. Participants were randomized (1:1 ratio) to an intervention (n = 34) and control group (n = 38). The study adheres to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT). Data analysis was based on multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures, followed by post hoc analyses with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.ResultsResults showed that the intervention was effective in increasing the participants’ culturally competent knowledge. The effect of the intervention on the skills domain approached significance. No group differences were identified in the attitudes and the encounters domains.ConclusionsAn online culturally informed intervention, incorporated in the curriculum, was effective in enhancing the cognitive aspect of cultural competence (especially at the basic knowledge and understanding levels), but not other domains. Our results encourage the development of future intervention programs that are based on a deep understanding of local values, needs, and preferences.

Energy inequality and clientelism in the wake of disasters: From colorblind to affirmative power restoration

Do social vulnerabilities and ruling party support shape government responsiveness in times of disasters? The 2017 hurricane María territory-wide power outage, the second longest in world history, is a tragic natural experiment that provides a unique opportunity to examine the determinants of government responsiveness during disaster recovery processes. We use data on power restoration crew deployments (N = 18,614 deployments), a novel measure of government responsiveness, and a new social vulnerability index to assess the determinants of government responsiveness in the wake of disasters. We find that communities with ties to the ruling party elicit greater government responsiveness while socially vulnerable communities are less likely to be prioritized during the disaster relief efforts, controlling for disaster damage as well as logistical, economic, and essential service recovery priorities. Existing power restoration policies place larger burdens on marginalized communities, motivating the need for including power restoration to vulnerable communities among restoration priorities.

The differences of poor SRH among municipalities in Iwate after the Great East Japan Earthquake

The health of communities has been observed to recover at differential rates in the wake of disasters. In the present study, the 5-year trends in poor self-rated health (SRH) in three municipalities of Iwate Prefecture following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami were compared. Annual surveys were conducted from 2011 to 2015 in three municipalities (Otsuchi, Rikuzentakata, and Yamada) that were heavily damaged by the tsunami. We tracked the prevalence of poor SRH in 10,052 participants (mean age, 61.0 years; 39.0% men). Trends in the prevalence of poor SRH were analyzed using generalized linear mixed effect models with control for covariates. Immediately after the disaster (2011), all three municipalities reported similar prevalences of poor SRH (around 15%). Among people under the age of 65 years, there was a gradual improvement in health for residents of Rikuzentakata and Yamada, but the prevalence of poor SRH remained persistently high in Otsuchi. Among people over the age of 65 years, the prevalence of poor SRH remained constant in Rikuzentakata and Yamada but increased over a 5-year follow-up period in Otsuchi. The delayed health recovery in Otsuchi may be due to the characteristics of the local health system. Examination of the variations in health recovery may provide clues about the sources of disaster resilience.

Autogestión and water sharing networks in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María

ABSTRACT Puerto Rico’s residents were left without water services for up to nine months in the wake of hurricanes Irma and María (2017). Further, it was clear that there were no viable plans for addressing water provision gaps in anticipation of future hazards. In response, Puerto Ricans initiated autogestión, a strategy to secure survival through self-provisioning. Utilizing mixed methods, we reveal two different emergent forms of autogestión water self-provision in three differently serviced Puerto Rican communities. These provide an informed reflection on the trade-offs and pitfalls of reliance on autogestión for water security in the wake of disaster.

“Life! Life!”: The Precarious Utopianism of Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140

Abstract This article examines the utopianism of Kim Stanley Robinson's 2017 sf novel New York 2140, the world of which is defined by a nexus of profound climatological disasters. In contrast to other texts in the growing cli-fi (climate fiction) genre, Robinson's seemingly apocalyptic world is a representation of a disaster utopia—real-world networks of care, compassion, collaboration, and utopian joy that emerge in the wake of disasters. In New York 2140 Robinson explores the valences of disaster utopianism beyond its contemporary, exceptional appearances, contemplating how communities can flourish in a world where disaster emerges as a direct result of capitalist precarity and inequality. The article situates New York 2140 within a newly emerging corpus of cultural work that calls for a direct confrontation with the destructive powers of the present by understanding utopia as a precarious and never-finished form of resistance to neoliberal late capitalism.

Theorizing disaster communitas

Disaster scholars have long complained that their field is theory light: they are much better at doing and saying than analyzing. The paucity of theory doubtless reflects an understandable focus on case studies and practical solutions. Yet this works against big picture thinking. Consequently, both our comprehension of social suffering and our ability to mitigate it are fragmented. Communitas is exemplary here. This refers to the improvisational acts of mutual help, collective feeling and utopian desires that emerge in the wake of disasters. It has been observed for as long as there has been a sociology of disasters. Within the field, there have been numerous efforts to name and describe it. Yet there has been far less enthusiasm to theorize it, which means that the disaster literature has not adequately explained the social conditions under which communitas arises (or fails to). In this article, we synthesize numerous case studies to do so. This takes us beyond simple statements of what communitas is and what it should be called, to considerations of the conditions under which it emerges, how it should be conceptualized, the factors that might prevent communitas, and how we might encourage it. While primarily a theoretical work, the identification of communitas’ facilitators and barriers have practical import for disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy as communitas has frequently proven to be a positive and potent force.

Corruption, Homelessness and Disasters

We argue that corruption causes greater homelessness following disasters because it weakens resilience, drains resources, and stifles recovery. We test this argument using data on homelessness from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) and data on corruption in the construction sector from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys. Using instrumental variables and other estimation techniques, we find that corruption is associated with significantly more people left homeless in the wake of disaster. Corruption in the construction sector is of particular concern, as once it is controlled for, the general level of corruption is not associated with post-disaster homelessness. These findings underline the importance of tackling corruption and poor construction practices in vulnerable communities. Furthermore, they highlight the need to mitigate the impact of corruption pre-disaster, plan for building collapse during the initial disaster response, and factor significant levels of homelessness and displacement into long term disaster recovery plans.

The Flint-Beecher Tornado of 1953: The "Other" in the Aftermath of Disaster

The Flint-Beecher Tornado of 1953:The "Other" in the Aftermath of Disaster Monika Moore (bio) The tornado that struck Flint, Michigan, on June 8, 1953, was the deadliest in Michigan's history and ranks among the top ten deadliest tornadoes in United States history.1 This F5 event (the highest on the Fujita scale, in use until January 2007), known as the Flint-Beecher tornado, killed 116 and injured 844 in the Flint area.2 This event was the deadliest tornado "since modern recordkeeping began in 1950," a statistic only recently surpassed by the May 2011 EF5 (the highest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, in use since February 2007) tornado in Joplin, Missouri, that killed 162.3 A research team of sociologists from what was then Michigan State College (now Michigan State University, henceforth MSC) conducted interviews with individuals and organizations who responded in its immediate aftermath. They came to a number of conclusions regarding the efficiency of the response phase, the success of the first responders in terms of communication and cooperation, and attitudes towards the various bodies that engaged in the response. There were several occasions during which frustration or disgust was expressed towards various "Others": late-arriving volunteers considered sightseers, strangers with unknown intentions, and even a Mexican family accused of benefitting from the disaster because their post-tornado house, built with disaster aid, was better than their original home.4 [End Page 93] This article considers the sociological concept of the Other as evidenced in the MSC interviews after the Flint-Beecher tornado. Sociologists, who have explored the important links between disaster research and social history, have defined the Other as that "constituting a non-normative status," or having "a unique cultural status … as an outsider and as a social threat."5 This analysis combines those definitions rather simplistically; a separate treatment using the second definition would be appropriate given more information on the cultural groups affected by the tornado. The identification of the Other can sometimes be beneficial, as in recognizing that strangers presented the threat of looting. In the case of the Mexican family, however, the identification of them as the Other indicated exclusionism and even prejudice. The significance of the Other in disaster is connected to what was considered "normal" in society. A return to pre-disaster normality, or the establishment of a new normal, is the goal of individuals and communities in the wake of disaster and symbolizes recovery.6 The presence of an Other can be connected to what is not considered normal, be it the presence of someone new (like a military presence remaining long after war is over) or a change in the status quo (like the Mexican family that appeared to benefit from the disaster). The presence of an Other may create a dissonance in terms of returning to normal or reaching a new normal. In the case of the Flint-Beecher tornado, investigating the status of Other attached to certain people illuminates how this label emerged and what it meant for community recovery. The impetus for this study emanates from an interest in the vulnerability of certain populations in the wake of disaster. As disaster scholars have noted, within this context vulnerability can be defined as "the inability to evade, withstand, recover from, or externalize the costs of a disaster or of preparing for it."7 Researchers have documented the disturbing trend of higher disaster-related fatalities in minority groups.8 This is, in part, related to poorer [End Page 94] Click for larger view View full resolution Damage from the Flint-Beecher tornado of 1953. Source: National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1953_Beecher_tornado.jpg) housing conditions in minority-dominated regions.9 Housing is also a troublesome factor in the wake of any disaster whenever familes are displaced and must acquire temporary housing. Researchers have also found significant evidence that the general psychological stress and trauma experienced during and after disaster is higher, longer lasting, and more severe for minority groups.10 In addition, during the response phase to a disaster the needs of racial minority groups may not be addressed in the same manner as those of white...

CrossCurrents at 70 and Beyond: An Editor’s Introduction

CrossCurrents at 70 and BeyondAn Editor’s Introduction S. Brent Rodríguez-Plate (bio) As I write this, I peer out the window of my office in central New York, gazing on snow covered fields, a forest full of bare trees, and a glint of sunrise on an otherwise cloudy day. My bucolic reverie quickly dissipates as the sounds of my children’s online classes drift into my space: teachers appear on little computer screens as their cats interrupt their lectures, students forget to turn off their microphones as they send messages to friends, and my own children grow hungry and ask if I can make them breakfast (which I gladly do). I have inherited the editorship of this journal in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. For one full year now, much of the world has radically changed its day to day comings and goings, from classrooms to emergency rooms, barber shops to restaurants, family reunions to book clubs, weddings to funerals. Anyone who might happen on this introduction in years to come will undoubtedly remember the first years of the 2020s from a very different perspective. The mass carnage from the virus (to date there have been over 2-million deaths caused by Covid-19 around the world) and its curtailing of basic human abilities to talk with and embrace loved ones has made us rethink our relationships with each other. With this, we have also noted the impact of technology on our lives, the importance of evidence-based public policy, and the need for health care accessibility in both urban and rural areas. This year’s compound crises in public health, economic distress, and police brutality have ripped the band-aid off the ailing body politic of the United States to reveal the unhealing wound of white oppression and exploitation of Black and Brown bodies. It has revealed the ugly disparities between rich and poor, and between remote professionals and in-person service industry workers. These disparities are not mere demographics, they determine who lives and who dies, who gets sick and who stays healthy. [End Page 1] In the realm of religious life, the pandemic has caused us to query what constitutes an authentic religious gathering and whether technology can supply a good enough substitute for the times when people cannot physically meet. Rabbis, priests, imams, and other religious leaders have scrambled to provide guidelines for what counts as sacred space online, and how to perform rituals from afar. We also wonder about the social role of religious institutions in the wake of disaster. What can, and should, temples, mosques, synagogues, churches, and gurdwaras do to bring solace, provide sanctuary, and supply hospitality to local communities during times of crisis? We keep saying there will be a “new normal” once the severity of the pandemic diminishes, but there’s a good chance everything will go on as before. We may learn nothing from it all. But we also hope that is not the case. The geopolitical landscape of 2021 is also in disarray, with or without the pandemic. The United States has recently voted out a narcissistic President with autocratic tendencies who leaves office right after he incited an insurrection against the U.S. Capitol. Simultaneously, a resurgence of so-called populism around the world has brought with it a wave of anti-immigration sentiment which sometimes sediments into laws. This resurfaced populism has also given rise to the ugly specter of white supremacist activity, full of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia that combines with attacks against minoritized people based on racial, sexual, and gender identity differences. Countering this trend, current movements such as Black Lives Matter are challenging many of the long-held white supremacist assumptions about U.S. history, and countering the deep currents of racist policies and cultural norms. And then there is the global climate change crisis that constantly looms in the background, a cataclysmic event so enormous that most of us cannot really grasp it. Among other terrible components, 2020 was the hottest year on record around the globe (tied with 2016), Australia’s wildfires from the year are estimated to have killed or displaced three billion animals, and California...

Social distancing and wellbeing: conceptualizing actor distance and actor safe zone for pandemics

ABSTRACT This article conceptualizes social distancing in the wake of disasters, such as pandemics, which affect the way actors perceive themselves in relation to the world around them. It advances that social distancing goes beyond the mere notion of being physically distant by drawing on work in psychology. This article introduces the term actor distance and applies the four domains of temporal, hypothetical, physical and social distance to the construct. Moreover, this work embeds actor distance in earlier work on actor wellbeing and the notion of a resources–challenges equilibrium (RCE) concept of wellbeing. Expanding on the framework of RCE, this article coins the term of actor safe zone and infuses it into Transformative Service Research. It discusses the connection of actor distance, RCE and actor safe zone in the light of major incidents and derives implications for service research and practice.