Assessing the Sustainability of Tsunami-Impacted Communities of Thailand’s Andaman Coast: An Institutional Ethnography

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2013-01-25
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Abstract
The 2004 Andaman Sea-Indian Ocean tsunami had a profound and enduring effect on communities, environment, and the overall livelihood of survivors. For impacted regions, the nature of reconstruction and recovery efforts has permanent implications for the long-term sustainability of communities and the livelihood of individuals. This institutional ethnography (IE) study assesses the sustainability of reconstruction aid and recovery in the four tsunami-impacted communities of Ban Nam Khem, Bangkaya, Thuungwa, and Khao Lak in Phang Nga province of Southern Thailand. The purpose of this study is to describe the post-tsunami landscape of recovery within these communities, and to document how survivors have experienced the processes of reconstruction, aid and recovery in their everyday world. Employing IE, the research exposes the broader influence of policies and plans created by institutions and government bodies that dictated the ruling relations of recovery within communities of focus. Analysis of data collected from February 2011 to December 2012 revealed an uneven pattern of aid and recovery not only between villages, but within villages. These patterns are delineated by divergent policies for aid and recovery that set people and communities on different trajectories in the reconstruction and recovery process. This has resulted in varying and uneven outcomes for long-term recovery both between and within communities of study. The emerging problematic within the study centres on the struggle for valuable land within the region. Furthermore, the emerging issues surrounding land and varying policies and plans for aid and recovery appear to shed light on fundamental flaws in reconstruction policies as a top down approach, while revealing the benefits of a grass-roots approach to reconstruction, aid, and recovery cultivated through non-governmental organization support, and enacted by people within the community. The overall outcomes and assessment of sustainable development in the reconstruction and aid recovery are discussed as are recommendations regarding how they can be linked to broader global and domestic forces impacting recovery. It is hoped that this study will not only help the people of the selected communities better understand the policies and processes that dictated the reconstruction and recovery effort in their communities, but also allow for NGOs and levels of government to understand more effective ways to rebuild communities following a disaster.
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Citation
Williams, A. (2013). Assessing the Sustainability of Tsunami-Impacted Communities of Thailand’s Andaman Coast: An Institutional Ethnography (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25023