Policy Press
Five After the earthquake: narratives of resilience, re-signification of fear and revitalisation of local identities in rural communities of Paredones, Chile
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Abstract
This chapter focuses on the development of a psychosocial intervention specifically designed to support rural-living elders in Chile to overcome the trauma of an earthquake. The results revealed that the construction of individual and collective narratives of resilience increased older people’s awareness of the strengths they have as a community. The memory workshops allowed participants to reflect on and share their previous experiences when confronting past disasters or community crises. Likewise, symbolising their emotions through creating music and collages allowed participants to collectively resignify their fear of the earthquake. In this way, participants transformed the meanings given to the disaster and simultaneously validated their own spontaneous responses to natural disasters or community crises. Both types of interventions, the memory- and arts-based workshops, allowed these communities of older people to search their own individual and community narratives of resilience, which seemed to have a positive impact on how they intended to confront future uncertainty.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the development of a psychosocial intervention specifically designed to support rural-living elders in Chile to overcome the trauma of an earthquake. The results revealed that the construction of individual and collective narratives of resilience increased older people’s awareness of the strengths they have as a community. The memory workshops allowed participants to reflect on and share their previous experiences when confronting past disasters or community crises. Likewise, symbolising their emotions through creating music and collages allowed participants to collectively resignify their fear of the earthquake. In this way, participants transformed the meanings given to the disaster and simultaneously validated their own spontaneous responses to natural disasters or community crises. Both types of interventions, the memory- and arts-based workshops, allowed these communities of older people to search their own individual and community narratives of resilience, which seemed to have a positive impact on how they intended to confront future uncertainty.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures, tables and boxes v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ foreword xiii
- Introduction 1
- Setting the scene: older people’s conceptualisation of resilience and its relationship to cultural engagement 19
- Ages and Stages: creative participatory research with older people 43
- Social connectivity and creative approaches to dementia care: the case of a poetry intervention 65
- Narrative identity and resilience for people in later life with dementia living in care homes: the role of visual arts enrichment activities 87
- After the earthquake: narratives of resilience, re-signification of fear and revitalisation of local identities in rural communities of Paredones, Chile 111
- Integrating sense of place within new housing developments: a community-based participatory research approach 129
- Ageing in place: creativity and resilience in neighbourhoods 157
- Crafting resilience for later life 181
- Oral histories and lacemaking as strategies for resilience in women’s craft groups 203
- Objects of loss: resilience, continuity and learning in material culture relationships 227
- Later-life gardening in a retirement community: sites of identity, resilience and creativity 249
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures, tables and boxes v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ foreword xiii
- Introduction 1
- Setting the scene: older people’s conceptualisation of resilience and its relationship to cultural engagement 19
- Ages and Stages: creative participatory research with older people 43
- Social connectivity and creative approaches to dementia care: the case of a poetry intervention 65
- Narrative identity and resilience for people in later life with dementia living in care homes: the role of visual arts enrichment activities 87
- After the earthquake: narratives of resilience, re-signification of fear and revitalisation of local identities in rural communities of Paredones, Chile 111
- Integrating sense of place within new housing developments: a community-based participatory research approach 129
- Ageing in place: creativity and resilience in neighbourhoods 157
- Crafting resilience for later life 181
- Oral histories and lacemaking as strategies for resilience in women’s craft groups 203
- Objects of loss: resilience, continuity and learning in material culture relationships 227
- Later-life gardening in a retirement community: sites of identity, resilience and creativity 249
- Index 267
