@article{ref1,
title="Top-down reconstruction and the failure to "build back better" resilient communities after disaster: lessons from the 2009 L'Aquila Italy earthquake",
journal="Disaster prevention and management",
year="2020",
author="Imperiale, Angelo Jonas and Vanclay, Frank",
volume="29",
number="4",
pages="541-555",
abstract="PURPOSE We consider what happened in the initial reconstruction interventions following the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila (Italy). Using the disaster risk reduction and resilience paradigm, we discuss the cognitive and interactional failures of top-down approaches, and we analyse the main constraints to enacting inclusive social learning and socially-sustainable transformation and building back better more resilient communities in post-disaster reconstruction. <br><br>DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH Our evidence comes from participant observation, action anthropology and analytic auto-ethnography conducted during the reconstruction phase following the L'Aquila earthquake. <br><br>FINDINGS were triangulated with document analysis, media analysis and retrospective interviewing conducted in 2013 and 2017. <br><br>FINDINGS The shift from civil defence to civil protection did not bring any advance in disaster management and development practice in terms of DRR and resilience. The militaristic command-and-control approach, which is still in vogue among civil protection systems, means that local political leaders become the civil protection authorities in a disaster area. As in the L'Aquila case, this exacerbates local social and environmental risks and impacts, inhibits local communities from learning and restricts them from participating in post-disaster interventions. <br><br>ORIGINALITY/VALUE Most previous commentary on disaster recovery and reconstruction following the L'Aquila earthquake has focussed on the top-down approach carried out by the national government and the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DCP). This paper is unique in that it sheds light on how the command-and-control approach was also implemented by local authority figures and on how this undermined building back better more resilient communities.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0965-3562",
doi="10.1108/DPM-11-2019-0336",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/DPM-11-2019-0336"
}