A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Community Recovery

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This research aims to build a comprehensive theory of pathways to recovery following a disaster by linking pre-disaster measures of causal conditions to recovery outcomes. Despite efforts to improve community resilience to disasters, the number and economic impact of disasters has increased each year over the past 25 years. At the same time, little cross-case comparative research has been completed to uncover what conditions enable a community to recover after a disaster. Understanding the causal conditions that lead to recovery is, however, fundamental to improving a community's ability to recover after a disaster. This research seeks to transform our understanding of recovery by analyzing comparative cases using a multi-method approach. This will enable us to determine what pre-disaster factors and recovery strategies, combined or in isolation, lead to successful post-disaster recovery. Specifically, this research will (1) identify recovery indicators and important causal conditions for community recovery across multiple disciplines (2) measure causal conditions and recovery indicators for villages in India impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; and (3) analyze the pathways of causal conditions that led to recovery in the case study communities.The results of this study will allow community planners to prioritize and focus their efforts on the causal factors that best strengthen the community's ability to recover from a disaster. It will also contribute to the development of a disaster recovery framework that can be expanded through future research.