Journal Article

Tacit networks, crucial care

Subedi, Niraj, Carrero, Rocio, Tzachor, Asaf, Acuto, Michele, Campbell, Ben, To, Long Seng

2019

Overview

It is often reiterated that a better understanding of local networks and needs is key to risk reduction. Nevertheless, the crucial role of informal social networks and actors in the catering for human needs in disaster circumstances remains largely under-explored. If we have to rethink the ‘work’ that informality does for our understanding of urban areas, its contribution to resilience, and take it seriously in the ‘full spectrum of risk’ in urban and peri-urban centres, better and more balanced methods are needed. This paper attends to this gap. Examining the mechanisms of aid provision in the aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal, it details an experimental set of quantitative research methods to explore the role of informal social networks in the provision of critical human needs in natural disasters. Relying on a sample of 160 households across four districts and 16 villages in the built environment affected by the Gorkha earthquake, the paper reveals that, overall, a wide disparity exists in the comparative importance of organisations in the provision of aid and resources. Much crucial after-disaster care is catered for by a mix of relatives, temples, friends, neighbours and local clubs. It highlights the importance of informal networks in understanding, and theorising, governance (of disaster and of the ‘urban’ more in general), and calls for greater attention to its role. It is time, it argues, to revalue informal disaster governance networks as a crucial, not tacit, component of disaster response. 人们经常强调，更好地了解当地网络和需求是降低风险的关键。尽管如此，非正规社会网络和行动者在灾害环境中满足人类需求的关键作用仍未得到充分研究。如果我们必须重新思考非正规性在我们理解城市地区方面的“作用”、它对复原力的贡献、并在城市和城郊中心的“全方位风险”中认真对待非正规性，那么，我们需要更好、更平衡的方法。本文旨在填补这一空白。本文研究了2015年尼泊尔廓尔喀地震之后的援助提供机制，详细介绍了一套实验性的定量研究方法，探讨非正规社会网络在提供自然灾害中人类关键需求方面的作用。我们依据受廓尔喀地震影响的建筑环境中的四个地区、16个村庄的160户家庭的样本，揭示了（总体而言）组织在提供援助和资源方面的相对重要性存在很大差异。许多重要的灾后护理由亲戚、寺庙、朋友、邻居和当地俱乐部提供。本文强调了非正规网络在促进我们对治理（灾难治理和更一般的“城市”治理）的理解和理论化方面的重要性，并要求更多地关注其作用。本文认为，现在是时候将非正规灾害治理网络重新评估为灾难响应的一个关键而非默认的组成部分。

• Publisher: Sage Publications, Ltd,SAGE Publications,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Aftermath / Built environment / Clubs / Disaster management / Disaster relief / Disasters / Districts / Division of labor / Earthquakes / Emergency services / Friendship / Governance / Households / Informal care / Local area networks / Natural disasters / Needs / Quality of care / Quantitative analysis / Quantitative research / Research methodology / Research methods / Resilience / Risk management / Risk reduction / Seismic activity / Social interactions / Social networks / Social organization / Social research / Special issue article: Transcending (in)formal urbanism / Temples / Understanding / Urban areas / Urban environments / Villages