Disasters can have devastating impacts with cascading effects that can persist over years and decades. Recovery is multidimensional. Ethnographic research after natural disasters can uncover the dynamic, diverse ways that communities understand and respond to extreme events. It can also document how populations adapt and learn through experimentation and innovation. Previous disaster recovery research has been primarily descriptive, focused on localized case studies and human agency rather than the theory-building needed to enable the lessons learned in one post-disaster context to be applied to other contexts. It has also rarely collected and analyzed information encompassing both the initial aftermath and longer periods that are essential for fully understanding recovery and transformation.

The research funded by this award will build on a prior NSF RAPID grant and analysis of extensive quantitative and qualitative data collected at about 9 months, 1.5 years, and 2.5 years after a natural disaster. It collected data and solicited feedback in years 6.5 to 10 following the event using an integrated human-natural systems approach, longitudinal design, multiple sites, mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, and outreach to diverse stakeholders. The research combines the broader theorization of interdisciplinary, quantitative modeling in the resilience and regime shift research with the textured qualitative approaches and critical perspectives of the anthropology and social science of disaster. The results will highlight the potential pitfalls of “one size fits all” relief and reconstruction interventions that overlook cultural and spatial diversity.

The findings will also move beyond more-common metaphorical explanations of resilience and transformation to illustrate empirical relationships between variables and household changes.

The project represents a collaboration between Portland State University, USA, and the Central Department of Anthropology at Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

The research has already been conducted in Nepal where there was a devastating series of earthquakes in the spring of 2015. This case study addressed two overarching research questions: (1) what factors contribute to the resilience of rural mountain households to natural hazards during the recovery phase? and (2) at what point do households maintain their condition or undergo transformation to an alternative state after natural disasters? The study examined critical recovery indicators, hazard exposure, and four household domains of adaptive capacity developed through long-term ethnographic research, pilot studies, and literature: accessibility and hazard exposure, institutional context and power, livelihood diversity, connectivity, and social memory. These domains were explored inductively, along with household demographics, settlement demographics, and recovery indicators, through a series of information-sharing meetings, household surveys, in-depth interviews, and research return workshops in years 6.5, 7.5, and 9 after the earthquakes and its cascading effects such as landslides.

The project re-identified 96% of the original 400 participating households in four catastrophically impacted communities. An additional 40 individuals were re-contacted for in-depth interviews and focus groups. The results were disseminated in a series of seven accessible local and national research return workshops with Ward Chairpersons, Ward members, local leaders, national decision-makers in a variety of fields related to disaster risk reduction, acamdeics and students, and the aid community. These workshops validated results, contextualized and enhanced interpretations, and assisted with co-producing lessons learned and recommendations relevant to local and national decision-making, policies, and practices.