‘They've made a boundary here’: Local government mergers, emergency management and social rupture following disasters

Le résumé fourni par la source

Local government boundaries play an important role in how disasters are managed. However, the potential effects of how these boundaries are set –on community identity, place attachment, and the process of disaster recovery– remain lesser known. This paper explores the relationship between local government mergers and experiences of social rupture following disasters. Case studies are presented from merged municipalities that faced the 2019-20 bushfires in Australia and the 2011 ‘triple disaster’ in Japan. Cases include the Snowy Valleys Local Government Area (Australia), which merged 3 years prior to the disaster, Kawamata town (Japan), which merged 56 years prior to the disaster, and Minamisoma city (Japan), which merged 5 years prior to the disaster. Qualitative case studies are presented, drawing on interviews, surveys, media, and ethnographic research. In all cases, residents raised past mergers when reckoning with the disaster and its aftermath. Additionally, the enactment of new boundaries in emergency management, for instance to define evacuation zones or eligibility for financial assistance, were perceived by residents to interact with prior mergers; in some cases, favouring larger towns, and in others, ‘undoing’ the merger and replicating former boundaries. Interactions between past and present boundaries contributed to a sense of rupture in social fabric. The present findings extend Kai Erikson’s concept of social rupture by highlighting how governance decisions, even those that may appear unrelated to disasters, such as mergers, can contribute to the loss of meaningful community in disasters.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.