“You Always Have to Struggle, So You Don't Have to Struggle”: Community Trauma Recovery After a Landslide

Abstract

This is a case study of one community's recovery after an 1814 landslide obliterated two hamlets in the Italian Dolomites, leaving only 44 escaping survivors. The study has two aims: to introduce the concept of taskscape to the recovery literature and to use survival narratives to identify community strengths. The concept of taskscape considers the social activities of people living within a specific, local landscape. Taskscapes may provide a more dynamic, locally developed understanding of social cohesion than do current notions such as social capital. Comparing pre-disaster taskscapes to post-disaster recovery across different cases may reveal new mechanisms for community resiliency.

KEYWORDS:

• community recovery
• survival narratives
• taskscape

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nancy P. Chin

Nancy P. Chin is an anthropologist and public health scientist specializing in health in mountain communities.

Marta Talpelli

Marta Talpelli is an anthropologist and graduate of the program at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice specializing in the anthropology of health and the anthropology of religion.