Vulnerability and resilience during disasters: Structural constraints and survivors’ agency in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake

Abstract

The tendency of previous research on vulnerability and resilience is to measure these two factors as quantifiable variables that vary between social strata and social groups. Past findings often emphasize structural factors, such as inequality and power relations. My fieldwork on survivors of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake complements this paradigm in two steps. First, I display the ‘inter-’ and ‘intra-categorical’ variations of five social categories, each with its own advantages, limits, goals, and difficulties. The resilience of the survivors varies qualitatively and cannot be reduced to a unidimensional scale. Second, I develop a framework of resilience based on the degrees of structure and agency. I identify five modes of resilience: well-integrated, renouncing, activist, defeated, and treading water. This framework can be used to assess the resource distribution of a community, locate people in need and people who can contribute and design proper interventions.