Rebuilding Relocated Tribal Communities Better via Culture: Livelihood and Social Resilience for Disaster Risk Reduction

Pei-Shan Sonia Lin and Wei-Cheng Lin
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Pei-Shan Sonia Lin: Graduate School of Disaster Management, Central Police University, Taoyuan 33304, Taiwan
Wei-Cheng Lin: Fire Bureau, Chiayi City Government, Chiayi City 33304, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Building back better is the goal of post-disaster recovery. However, most of the extant literature focuses on hardware reconstruction and there is a lack of attention on the social aspect of recovery. This study aims to understand the role of culture in the recovery process of relocating indigenous communities through tourism livelihood. A Tsou indigenous settlement, relocated after the 2009 Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan, was used as a case study. Field data were collected through participant observations in tourism and community activities as well as semi-structured interviews over a period of 15 months. The study found that appealing to a relocated tribe’s culture, not their land, as their community’s foundation could reduce conflicts within the community and increase social resilience. Indigenous culture-based tourism could serve as an important source of livelihood for such tribes, supporting long-term development. This study highlights community-based cultural tourism as a post-disaster livelihood revival approach which is beneficial for a resilient recovery. Culture could reduce disaster risk through a transformation to a livelihood source and further become the base of community resilience. Instead of promoting detached culture preservation, this study argues that a livelihood-relevant culturally innovative transformation could create a win–win situation for both post-disaster community recovery and culture inheritance.

Keywords: relocation; post-disaster recovery; cultural tourism; build back better; community-based tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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