DDRIG: The Popular Reconstruction of an Urban City Following a Disaster

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This research focuses on displaced persons' production of habitat and rights to access urban resources in an historic district of an urban capital. After an earthquake in 2010, many NGOs and UN agencies provided minimally designed temporary shelters to people affected by the earthquake. However, many people refused to live in these hazardous camps and, instead, implemented housing solutions of their own. Moving in and around the old districts of the city, people started to negotiate their access to resources such as potable water or electricity and their right to use public space. Some displaced persons moved into unoccupied houses which are included on the World Monument Watch List. If they seem to be able to negotiate their right to stay in these houses, the stability of their settlements is threatened by new exclusionary spatial arrangements built by the many NGOs which established their base camps in this neighborhood. The main research question is: What are the imaginaries and aspirations embedded in the production of dwellings in these houses and, in turn, to what extent are these spatial practices shaped by a built environment echoing the colonial past, a brutal history of class conflicts and the omnipresence of humanitarian actors?Using photography, interviews and participatory mapping, this research tracks the cultural practices of inhabitants through their use of built environments. This inquiry seeks to explore the transformation of the historical houses into dwellings to understand the vernacular basis for the production of rights and spaces of belonging. The use of elements of a material culture echoing the colonization, oppression of the masses warrants serious attention as it presents a popular response to disasters in which fruitful visions for the future arise. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.