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Disaster Solidarity and Survivor Ethics: A Case Study of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico.

Robert W SchraufPatria C López de Victoria Rodríguez
Published in: Disasters (2023)
Liminal periods of disaster solidarity in the aftermath of disaster are a common experience for many survivors. These periods have a specifically ethical component in that people spontaneously engage in collective, altruistic action and magnanimously expand their ethical focus beyond normative social distinctions and hierarchies. Inevitably, however, such solidarity seems to wane, and people return to pre-disaster patterns of interaction. Nevertheless, some individuals move beyond opportune acts of assistance to more extensive re-organizations of their lives during the recovery period and re-shape their ethical commitments in new and durable directions. Based on observational and interview data collected after Hurricane Maria (2017) in a mountainous Puerto Rican municipio and employing the framework of virtue ethics, we examine the differential effects of disaster solidarity on survivors' ethical responses and the different contributions these make to society.
Keyphrases
  • public health
  • big data
  • decision making
  • young adults
  • mental health