Resilience of traditional societies in facing natural hazards

Abstract

Purpose-This article sets out to address the response of traditional societies in facing natural hazards through the lens of the concept of resilience. Design/methodology/approach-This paper considers that resilient societies are those able to overcome the damage caused by the occurrence of natural hazards, either through maintaining their pre-disaster social fabric, or through accepting marginal or larger change in order to survive. The discussion is based on a review of the corpus of case studies available in the literature. Findings-The present article suggests that the capacity of resilience of traditional societies and the concurrent degree of cultural change rely on four factors, namely: the nature of the hazard, the pre-disaster socio-cultural context and capacity of resilience of the community, the geographical setting, and the rehabilitation policy set up by the authorities. These factors significantly vary in time and space, from one disaster to another. Practical implications-It is important to perceive local variations of the foregoing factors to better anticipate the capability of traditional societies to overcome the damage caused by the occurrence of natural hazards and therefore predict eventual cultural change. Originality/value-This article takes off from the previous vulnerability-driven literature by emphasizing the resilience of traditional societies.

Embodied uncertainty: living with complexity and natural hazards

“…The, often tacit, knowledge that groups and individuals use to frame dimensions of uncertainty are fluid products of ongoing decisionmaking, shared experiences and assumptions and broader mental models. Community-based disaster risk management and other participatory approaches provide mechanisms by which to incorporate this plurality of perspectives into the co-production of knowledge (Williams and Dunn 2003;Cronin et al 2004;Gaillard 2006;Cadag and Gaillard 2014). Similarly, joint fact-finding techniques can be employed to help groups work through science-intensive policy and planning disputes to create a shared vision and inform collective decision-making, even in situations with high degrees of uncertainty (Karl, Susskind, and Wallace 2007;Schenk 2016).…”

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

“…Resilience therefore is considered to be the positive side of vulnerability. It represents the capacity to resist damage and change resulting from major incidents (Moore and Lakha 2004;Gaillard 2007). Parsons (2010) described resilience as a capability and argued that organizational culture and resilience are tightly linked.…”

Cultural Identity Expressions through Visual Analysis in Post-Disaster Housing

“…Deeper impression of social values and culture in coping process is discussed by Oliver (2006); Gaillard (2007) and Saeng-Ngam et al (2009) as the clue in the future life of communities. Besides, Geipel (1991) and Passerini (2000) have argued about the role of optimistic attributes associating with home loss cope toward the windows of opportunities by reconstructing desired buildings.…”

“…Moreover, three different theoretical frame works are modified concerning resilience and vulnerability of traditional societies within the respond to natural hazards (Gaillard, 2007). Accordingly, survivors' capacities and attitude toward external aids would determine the degree of cultural consequences after disasters.…”