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Emergent social identities in a flood: implications for community psychosocial resilience

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 07:11 authored by Evangelos Ntontis, John DruryJohn Drury, Richard Amlot, James Rubin, Richard Williams
While the mobilisation of pre-existing networks is crucial in psychosocial resilience in disasters, shared identities can also emerge in the absence of such previous bonds, due to survivors sharing a sense of “common fate”. Common fate seems to operate in “sudden-impact” disasters (e.g., bombings), but to our knowledge no research has explored social identity processes in “rising-tide” incidents. We interviewed an opportunity sample of 17 residents of York, UK, who were involved in the 2015-16 floods. Using thematic and discourse analysis we investigated residents’ experiences of the floods, and the strategic function that invocations of community identities perform. We show how shared community identities emerged (e.g., due to shared problems, shared goals, perceptions of vulnerability, and collapse of previous group boundaries), and show how they acted as the basis of social support (both given and expected). The findings serve to further develop the social identity model of collective psychosocial resilience in “rising-tide” disasters. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology

ISSN

1052-9284

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

1

Volume

28

Page range

3-14

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-07-13

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-07-26

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-07-13

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