Remembering the Future

Natural Disaster, Place, and Symbolic Survival

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2291256
AutoresDaniel A Shtob (0000-0002-1695-1762, Environmental Studies Program and Department of Sociology University of Oregon, autor correspondente)
Ano2019
Volume84
Fascículo1
Páginas123-147
Data de publicação2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoRural Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0036-0112 • E-ISSN: 1549-0831
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ruso.12224
OpenAlexW2801671072
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas53

The Pacific Northwest coast of the United States is currently facing the threat of an earthquake and tsunami some experts predict will be the worst natural disaster in North American history. This region also must contend with predicted effects of climate change. Applying the sociological traditions of memory, silence, and place to the natural hazard context, I qualitatively explore how local residents collectively envision future disasters and their associated risks. Responsive narratives are developed from an array of local meanings and identities drawn from place. They tend to partially displace narratives that visualize disasters as disruptive agents of danger, mnemonically replacing them with symbols of survival, continuity, and community agency. Overall, I find that this collective displacement manifests in event- and place-specific ways and partially silences disturbing aspects of potential disaster. These findings demonstrate the promise of analyzing the idiosyncratic ways that future environmental disaster is perceived and experienced. Because risk perception has been identified as a contributor to community resilience and capacity, these findings emphasize the need for local, place-based approaches to disaster planning, particularly in small communities with resource-extractive histories

Agency (philosophy · Collective memory · Community resilience · Context (archaeology · Environmental ethics · Geography · Hazard · Narrative · Natural (archaeology · Natural disaster · Natural hazard · Political science · Psychological resilience · Resource (disambiguation · Social science · Sociology · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Disaster Management and Resilience · History · Psychology · Risk Perception and Management · Social Psychology