Webinar Series – Lecture 2 – “From tragedy to opportunity” -30th April
The second lecture of the SPARC webinar series was held on 30th April 2021 from 7 -8 p.m. via zoom. Professor Ryan Alaniz, associate professor of Sociology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo shared his views on the topic; “From tragedy to opportunity: Post disaster resettlement and community building in Honduras“. The speaker revealed the timely need of addressing relocation of communities away from vulnerable areas in the face of climate crisis. Professor Alaniz based his lecture on a comparative case study which was conducted in two initially similar Honduran resettlements built for survivors of Hurricane Mitch (1998) by two different organizations in subsequent years. The findings revealed that one resettlement had high crime, low participation, and low social capital, while the other maintained a high degree of safety and social health, twelve years after the hurricane. The speaker concluded with the fact that displaced groups need significant external support and guidance to develop from a resettlement into a community.
