When Housing and Communities Were Delivered: A Case Study of Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Rural Reconstruction and Recovery

Abstract

This study contributes to an in-depth examination of how Wenchuan earthquake disaster survivors utilize intensive built environment reconstruction outcomes (housing and infrastructural systems) to facilitate their long-term social and economic recovery and sustainable rural development. Post-disaster recovery administered via top-down disaster management systems usually consists of two phases: a short-term, government-led reconstruction (STGLR) of the built environment and a long-term, survivor-led recovery (LTSLR) of human and social settings. However, current studies have been inadequate in examining how rural disaster survivors have adapted to their new government-provided housing or how communities conducted their long-term recovery efforts. This qualitative case study invited sixty rural disaster survivors to examine their place-making activities utilizing government-delivered, urban-style residential communities to support their long-term recovery. This study discovered that rural residents’ recovery activities successfully perpetuated their original rural lives and rebuilt social connections and networks both individually and collectively. However, they were only able to manage their agriculture-based livelihood recovery temporarily. This research suggests that engaging rural inhabitants’ place-making expertise and providing opportunities to improve their housing and communities would advance the long-term grassroots recovery of lives and livelihoods, achieving sustainable development.

Learning capacity and diversification, enabling and constraining factors, and external assistance: A cross-national comparative analysis of long-term livelihood recovery

“…In order to swiftly accommodate 5.4 million earthquake survivors, the post-disaster reconstruction, led by the national and provincial governments, predominately focused on the built environment reconstruction while for the most part neglecting the social and other societal dimensions (Wu 2020). Furthermore, due to the time-sensitive issue of housing for the tremendous number of disaster survivors, local residents’ participation in the government-led built environment reconstruction of communities was very limited (Wu 2021b). Hence, the long-term recovery began from the moment that disaster survivors moved into their new communities (Wu 2021a).…”

Adaptability, Interdisciplinarity, Engageability: Critical Reflections on Green Social Work Teaching and Training

“…Extreme events devastate almost all the societal sectors, for instance, destroying housing and critical infrastructural systems [ 11 ], suspending healthcare and social services [ 12 ], and disrupting economic growth [ 13 ]. These negative impacts not only cause compounded impacts on global citizens’ health and well-being, but also reversely reinforce the frequency, scope, and magnitude of extreme events and further increase inhabitants’ exposure to related hazards, weakening resilience and threatening sustainability at the individual, family, community, and societal levels [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”