A Review of “Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina”

Art-making as place-making following disaster

“…Such harmonization relies not only upon the financial aspects of institutional relations but also upon the mutual senses of trust and affinity they share (Adger, 2000). Therefore, because social capital is as important as financial capital, an activity that develops and operates outside of political, historical, cultural and psychological contexts loses efficacy (Morrice, 2013; Ainuddin, 2012; MacKinnon and Derickson 2012; Nerlich and Jaspal, 2012; Munt, 2012; Cote and Nightingale, 2012; Tobin et al, 2011; Wolf et al, 2011; Lowry, 2009; Furedi, 2007; Birch and Wachter, 2006; Folke, 2006). Resilience thus emerges from ‘a complex web of social interactions, characteristics and capacities that enable a community to live with the hazards they face’ (Crowley et al, 2012: 209).…”

“…A humanistic reading of these statements reveals ample room for the role of the geographical imagination in their interpretation. For instance, given the cognitive-material nature of place, the geographical imagination can be easily conceived as one of the ‘inherent conditions’ of systemic adaptability mentioned by Holling (1973), as an essential element in the development of institutional trust and inclusion noted by Adger (2000), and as an essential tool for the political, historical, cultural, and psychological contextualization cited by several scholars (Ainuddin, 2012; Birch and Wachter, 2006; Cote and Nightingale, 2012; Folke, 2006; Furedi, 2007; Lowry, 2009; MacKinnon and Derickson, 2012; Morrice, 2013; Munt, 2012; Nerlich and Jaspal, 2012; Tobin et al, 2011; Wolf et al, 2010). Another opportunity emerges in a list of factors that DiGiano and Racelis (2012) consider to be essential to resilience, namely social memory, a kind of collective historical context and emotional state that facilitates the interpretation of the past, the perception of the present, and the imagination of the future.…”

“…Don’t just listen to what others say; see Haiti with your own eyes.’ (Stephenson, 2011: 27)as well as Haiti: ‘I am drawing all over to help people stay positive, and I think it is starting to work a little bit’ (Stephenson, 2011: 27). Both quotes describe the use of art to create images that increase resilience by contextualizing the earthquake and local responses to it in broader political, historical, cultural, and psychological terms (Ainuddin, 2012; Birch and Wachter, 2006; Cote and Nightingale, 2012; Folke, 2006; Furedi, 2007; Lowry, 2009; MacKinnon and Derickson, 2012; Morrice, 2013; Munt, 2012; Nerlich and Jaspal, 2012; Tobin et al, 2011; Wolf et al, 2010) and stimulating social memory (DiGiano and Racelis, 2012). Local and global imaginations rely upon representations that are conceived and produced by artists in relation to local and global places.…”