RAPID: Disaster as a Catalyst for Social-Ecological Transformation

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

Ethnographic research after natural disasters can uncover the dynamic, plural, and hybrid ways that communities understand and respond to extreme events. It can also document how populations learn through experimentation and innovation. However, much of the social science research to date has been primarily descriptive, focused on localized case studies and human agency rather than the theory building needed to enable the lessons learned in one post-disaster context to be applied to other contexts. In contrast, the research funded by this award takes a coupled social-ecological systems approach. It will combine the broader theorization of interdisciplinary, quantitative critical transitions or regime-shift research with the more textured qualitative approaches of the social science of disaster. The research will be conducted by Dr. Jeremy Spoon (Portland State University) in Nepal where there was a devastating series of earthquakes in the spring of 2015. Earthquake recovery and reconstruction comprise a multi-staged process that occurs over weeks, months, and years. Spoon and his research team will conduct ethnographic and survey research using a retrospective survey of pre-earthquake states, at two short time intervals (about 10 weeks each) to track the impacts and recovery trajectory. The project will enroll 200-400 households in four communities. An additional 20-40 individuals participating in the initial household survey will be contacted for in-depth interviews. The data collection will focus on three to five key indicator variables that express adaptive capacity and follow them over time to uncover social-ecological transformation in the selected communities. The indicators include: biophysical attributes (characteristics integral to the ecological system structure and processes prior to the disturbance); institutional context (governance of the social-ecological system); connectivity (flows of information, knowledge, resources and linkages between the system and external actors); livelihood diversity (diverse patterns of resource use and heterogeneity of income); and social memory (prior experiences with disturbances). The timing of this project will allow the researchers to collect information on pre-earthquake states, the emergency response, the restoration of basic essentials, and the start of livelihood reconstruction. It will provide a window into transformation processes at the earliest stages, setting a foundation for a longer-term project that follows social and ecological reconstruction in the targeted areas over multiple years.