Catastrophe and community empowerment

The group formulations of aberfan's survivors

Bibliographic Data

ID11043313
AuthorsRichard A Couto (Tennessee State University, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume17
Issue3
Pages236-248
Publication date1989-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Community Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-4392 • E-ISSN: 1520-6629
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/1520-6629(198907)17:3<236::aid-jcop2290170306>3.0.co;2-z
OpenAlexW2047959470
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited5

The residents of Aberfan, a coal-mining village in South Wales, endured a terrible catastrophe which took the lives of 144 residents, 104 of them schoolchildren between the ages of 8 and 10. Twenty years after the catastrophe, there are group formulations, expressing the grief of the community and asserting its values in a manner inspired by the catastrophe, that resemble forms and stages of empowerment. This examination of them extends our knowledge of the process of empowerment. First, group formulations of a catastrophe are described as a mechanism of empowerment, resembling much of what we know about the stages of empowerment. Second, interviews with community leaders are described that indicate the limits of empowerment; specifically, that the assertion of community values is, in part, a protest of the political and economic factors which contributed to the catastrophe and continued to impede the well-being of the community. The group formulations to deal with these factors and to establish a different set of political and economic factors demonstrate the important constraints on empowerment as a process.

Assertion · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Community Health and Development · Disaster Management and Resilience · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology

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