Post-disaster memoryscapes: Communicating disaster risks and climate change after the Leh flash floods in 2010

Abstract

Drastic life events like that of a disaster are not easily forgotten. Various narratives emerge to keep alive the memory of a disaster, its precursors and its consequences in the minds of those who experience it. Therefore, disaster memories become an important source of information and learning, not only for the community but also for policy makers who can work towards identifying the precursors and reducing the consequences of a disaster. Discourses in Indian disaster studies have largely ignored the exploration and importance of memory and memorializing practices in communicating disaster risks and climate change. Ontologically speaking, most research in this area has continued to look at disaster as an external, materialistic and objective reality, which has resulted in the production of a large body of literature focused on different types of ‘assessment’ studies. However, disasters also have an ‘experiential’ reality, the memory of which results in the formation of memoryscapes with strong psychocultural consequences. Therefore, this article turns its attention to the experience of the disaster and uses the tool of ‘communicative memory’ to explore the ‘experiential’ world.

Investigating the role of risk perception in place-based responses: case studies of the 2003 Bam and 2017 Ezgeleh-Sarpol Zahab earthquakes

“…Indeed, perceptions gained from experiences have an obvious effect on cognitive biases (Celsi, 2005). Because severe life events, such as an earthquake, cannot be easily forgotten and various narratives Role of risk perception emerge to keep memories, their precursors and consequences alive, (Shubhda, 2018), then they become an important source of information, learning and acting. These can be in the form of psychological reactions, behavioral responses or decisions based on obtained perceptions about the earthquake.…”

“…Sensory elements are associated with cognitive, emotional and physiological responses and form connections in memory with traumatic experiences (Elbert et al, 2015). According to Arora, this response is recognized as a natural reaction and disaster survivors remember it whenever they face with Role of risk perception similar events, situations or reminders (Shubhda, 2018). Actually, memory is activated after the aroused emotions by environmental stimuli (Bremner et al, 1995).…”

Intersectional vulnerability in post‐disaster contexts: lived experiences of Dalit women after the Nepal earthquake, 2015

“…These become the best tools to assess everyday experiences of pain, trauma, and suffering (Das, 2015). Memory and narratives relating to a previous disaster shape people's knowledge and how they will respond to similar events in the future (Webb, 2007; Arora, 2018a). They have the potential, therefore, to inform and mould many disaster management and policy functions.…”

Addressing biases to increase investment in risk reduction

“…However, these times of emotional recovery often involve telling the story, which can be in books, poetry, films, weblogs and even music videos (Pardo et al, 2015;Millar et al, 2019;Hutt, 2021). Building on a skill set of empathy and trust, communication practitioners can compile compelling stories of lived experience that may inform and motivate subsequent risk communication (Sellnow and Seeger, 2016) and preserve memories that counter amnesia bias (Meyer and Kunreuther, 2017), when disaster events of the past are forgotten (Arora, 2018;Monteil et al, 2020).…”