“Homesick for Something That’s Never Going to Be Again”: An Exploratory Study of the Sociological Implications of Solastalgia

Abstract

Research on sense of place suggests that people’s understandings of themselves and others is closely tied to the feelings they have about the place where they reside. Solastalgia expands on this sociological concept by considering the impacts on the various benefits derived from place when a landscape is changed through acute or chronic environmental disruptions. As such, climate-related disasters affect both tangible and intangible goods. Using 24 qualitative interviews with residents of Paradise, California several months after a wildfire destroyed their town, this exploratory study examines three ways in which the solastalgia experience is socially constructed. This occurs through disruptions to coping resources found in the natural world, embeddedness of history in place, and the experience of “homesickness” for a changed landscape.

Keywords:

• Environmental hazards risks and health
• place
• qualitative analysis
• North America
• interviews
• disaster
• sense of place
• sociology
• wildfire

Acknowledgements

This paper has resulted from work completed for my Master’s Thesis at the University of New Hampshire in 2020, titled “‘Homesick for Something That’s Never Going to Be Again’: Redefining Identity and Community after the Camp Fire.”