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Examining relational social ontologies of disaster resilience: lived experiences from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Chile and Andean territories

Eija Meriläinen (UCL, London, UK)
Jacquleen Joseph (Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India)
Marjaana Jauhola (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland)
Punam Yadav (UCL, London, UK)
Eila Romo-Murphy (Health Communication Resources, Worthing, UK)
Juliette Marin (University of Chile, Santiago, Chile)
Shyam Gadhavi (Prakrit Foundation for Development, Mundra, India)

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 23 December 2021

Issue publication date: 2 June 2022

441

Abstract

Purpose

The neoliberal resilience discourse and its critiques both contribute to its hegemony, obscuring alternative discourses in the context of risk and uncertainties. Drawing from the “ontology of potentiality”, the authors suggest reclaiming “resilience” through situated accounts of the connected and relational every day from the global south. To explore alternate possibilities, the authors draw attention to the social ontology of disaster resilience that foregrounds relationality, intersectionality and situated knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

Quilting together the field work experiences in India, Indonesia, Nepal, Chile and Andean territories, the authors interrogate the social ontologies and politics of resilience in disaster studies in these contexts through six vignettes. Quilting, as a research methodology, weaves together various individual fragments involving their specific materialities, situated knowledge, layered temporalities, affects and memories. The authors’ six vignettes discuss the use, politicisation and resistance to resilience in the aftermath of disasters.

Findings

While the pieces do not try to bring out a single “truth”, the authors argue that firstly, the vignettes provide non-Western conceptualisations of resilience, and attempts to provincialise externally imposed notions of resilience. Secondly, they draw attention to social ontology of resilience as the examples underscores the intersubjectivity of disaster experiences, the relational reaching out to communities and significant others.

Originality/value

Drawing from in-depth research conducted in six disaster contexts by seven scholars from South Asia, South America and Northern Europe, the authors embrace pluralist situated knowledge, and cross-cultural/language co-authoring. Thus, the co-authored piece contributes to diversifying disaster studies scholarship methodologically.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The study is funded by Academy of Finland Fellowship Gendered Political Violence and Urban Post-Disaster Reconstruction (2015-2020) (No: 286013); Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) (International visitors program 2018); Chile-Finland Network on Socioenvironmental Science (No: ANID-REDES170041); Foundation of Economic Education and The George Washington University and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Project “Leadership for Disaster Resilience: A study of Current Practices and Gaps in the Indian Context” (2017-2019) (No: 17-S20R).

Citation

Meriläinen, E., Joseph, J., Jauhola, M., Yadav, P., Romo-Murphy, E., Marin, J. and Gadhavi, S. (2022), "Examining relational social ontologies of disaster resilience: lived experiences from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Chile and Andean territories", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 273-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-02-2021-0057

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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