As events, disasters are extraordinary and totalising, and, because of this, one would expect them to be memorable, and shape ideas and practices on how to deal with new crises successfully. The literature on crisis and disaster management suggests that communities learn from disaster experience, which leads to reduced risks and enhanced preparedness. A recent case study in Santa Fe City, Argentina, based on ethnographic methods problematizes this assumption. Studying the urban landscape of flood memories enables an understanding for the heterogeneous, selective and dynamic ways of remembering and forgetting that shape societal vulnerability and resilience to recurrent hazards.
19 Mar 2015