Epicentre to Aftermath: Rebuilding and Remembering in the Wake of Nepal's Earthquakes

Cambridge University Press, 9/30/2021
EAN 9781108834056, ISBN10: 1108834051

Hardcover, 478 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Epicentre to Aftermath makes both empirical and conceptual contributions to the growing body of disaster studies literature by providing an analysis of a disaster aftermath that is steeped in the political and cultural complexities of its social and historical context. Drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the book highlights the political, historical, cultural, artistic, emotional, temporal, embodied and material dynamics at play in the earthquake aftermath. Crucially, it shows that the experience and meaning of a disaster are not given or inevitable, but are the outcome of situated human agency. The book suggests a whole new epistemology of disaster consequences and their meanings, and dramatically expands the field of knowledge relevant to understanding disasters and their outcomes.

Part I. Contextualizing Disaster
Preface
1. Reconstituting pasts and futures
contextual agency in a disaster aftermath Mark Liechty and Michael Hutt
2. Earthquakes in Nepali history John Whelpton
Part II. Rebuilding Lives
3. Expertise, labour and mobility in Nepal's post-conflict, post-disaster reconstruction
Law, construction and finance as domains of social transformation Sara Shneiderman, Dan Hirslund, Jeevan Baniya, Philippe Le Billon, Bina Limbu, Bishnu Pandey, Katharine Rankin, Nabin Rawal, Prakash Chandra Subedi, Manoj Suji, Deepak Thapa and Cameron Warner
4. Labour and the humanitarian present
thinking through the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes Shyam Kunwar, Elsie Lewison and Katharine N. Rankin
5. Disaster, deceptions, dislocations
reflections from an integrated settlement project in Nepal Jeevan Baniya
6. Humanitarian responses of I/NGOs after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake
empirical evidence from Gorkha, Sindhupalchok and Southern Lalitpur Amrita Gurung and Jeevan Baniya
7. Policies, politics and practices of landslide risk management in post-earthquake Nepal
perspectives from above and below Katie Oven, Shubheksha Rana, Gopi K. Basyal, Nick Rosser and Mark Kincey
Part III. Rebuilding Structures
8. The politics of participatory disaster governance in Nepal's post-earthquake reconstruction Nimesh Dhungana
9. Changing perspectives on international aid in Nepal since the 2015 earthquakes Shobhit Shakya
10. Reclaiming heritage
the politics and poetics of Newar urbanism Sabin Ninglekhu, Patrick Daly and Pia Hollenbach
11. Kathmandu Durbar Square
heritage reconstruction as a political process of negotiating ownership and authority by Stefanie Lotter
Part IV. Building Memory
12. Cultural heritage display after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal
the architecture galleries, Patan Museum Katharina Weiler
13. Art as participation, gift and resource
Nepali artists' engagement in post- earthquake Kathmandu Valley Christiane Brosius
14. Gathering absences and presences
memory work, photographs and affective recovery in the Langtang Valley Austin Lord and Jennifer Bradley
15. Bhukampa
Nepali recitations of an earthquake aftermath Michael Hutt.