"Upheaval": Unpacking the dynamic balance between place attachment and social capital in disaster recovery.

A growing body of literature demonstrates that both place attachment and social capital play considerable, and likely interdependent, roles in disaster recovery. This paper contributes to our understanding of these constructs by presenting findings from a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of communities impacted by a home buyout program implemented in New York after Hurricane Sandy (N = 111). Results suggest a dynamic balance between place dependence, place identity, and bonding social capital, in which the relative importance of each construct can shift over time, and where losses in one of these areas may lead to cascading losses in the other areas.

Post-disaster place attachment: A qualitative study of place attachment in the wake of the 2013 Moore tornado.

Place attachment is the social, emotional, and functional bond people experience with a specific geographic area. The formation of this bond is based on several different characteristics of the place, such as property values, local relationships, and employment opportunities as well as the internal attributes of a person, such as age, gender, and income. While gaining an understanding of place attachment through these characteristics and attributes is indispensable to our understanding of disaster recovery, few studies have explored this relationship using qualitative methods.

Culture, local capacity, and outside aid: a community perspective on disaster response after the 2009 tsunami in American Sāmoa.

Research on diverse cultural contexts has indicated that aid organisations often fail to leverage local, culturally-grounded resources and capacities in disaster-affected communities. Case-study methodology was employed to explore the relationship between local and external disaster response efforts in American Sāmoa following the earthquake and tsunami on 29 September 2009 in the southern Pacific Ocean, with a specific focus on the role of culture in defining that relationship. Interview and focus group data from 37 participants, along with observational data, suggested that the local response to the event was swift and grounded in Samoan cultural systems and norms.

Rebuild or Relocate? Resilience and Postdisaster Decision-Making After Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast of the United States on October 29, 2012, devastating communities in its path. In the aftermath, New York implemented a home buyout program designed to facilitate the permanent relocation of residents out of areas considered to be at risk for future hazards. While home buyout programs are becoming popular as policy tools for disaster mitigation, little is known about what factors influence homeowners to participate in or reject these programs.