Flood narratives and their role in recovery and resilience trajectories of disaster-stricken women in Beauce


Typhaine Leclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal

Extreme weather events (EWE) such as heat waves, storms, floods, and droughts, are destabilizing incidents that can impact mental health and well-being for affected populations. Disasters are often understood as discrete events, with a beginning and an end, after which disaster-stricken communities can take steps to recover. Yet disasters are often part of a broader pattern of adversity caused by poverty and social inequality, global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Lawrence-Bourne et al., 2020), or other disasters – increasingly so, as climate change leads to EWEs becoming more frequent and severe (GIEC, 2021). EWEs’ effects on health and well-being are not evenly distributed in affected populations, as social conditions are a main determinant of disaster vulnerability (Rushton et al., 2020). Groups and individuals dealing with the most intense hazards impacts are those who already find themselves in unfavorable situations for reasons linked to geography, poverty, gender, race, age, disability, or cultural affiliation (Chaplin et al., 2019; Hrabok et al., 2020). Social and psychological resilience researcher Michael Ungar has defined resilience as “the outcome of negotiations between individuals and their environments to maintain a self-definition as healthy” (Ungar, 2004, p. 81). Bioethicist and medicine philosopher Fredrik Svenaeus (2013) posits that when we are “healthy”, we feel “at home” in the world. This feeling of homelikeness generally remains in the background, in transparency of our experience of the world, as long as it is not unsettled by illness or other major events. Disruptions to the state of health or balance are manifested by a feeling of “unhomelike being-in-the-world” (Svenaeus, 2013, p. 102). EWE can disrupt both the sense of being “at home” in the world and feelings of safety related to the places people call home. The research focuses on the psychosocial impacts of river Chaudière floods on women in Beauce (QC), and the stories they tell about what they lived through. Seventeen women who have been subjected to one or more flooding events in Beauce participated in semi-structured interviews during which they were invited to share stories of their experience and recovery process. A feminist narrative framework guided analysis, allowing us to identify different phases participants navigated, impacts of the floods on their wellbeing and functioning at different points in time, and strategies levied for recovery. Participants’ experiences of floods and ensuing consequences vary depending on the material constraints that mark their existence (e.g. socioeconomic status, age, disability, household structure, etc.), the social expectations they face (e.g. as workers, mothers, citizens, etc.), and their self-perceptions (e.g. as a resilient person, as a Beauceronne, as a good mother). This presentation will offer an overview of these consequences on women’s wellbeing, including factors of vulnerability and protection, and center on participants’ recovery processes. Various material and discursive strategies adopted by participants to make sense of their experience, rebuild their homes, and rebuild their sense of security after major floods will be discussed, for example, putting oneself in the place of others; talking, writing, and creating about their experience; taking ownership of their living space; and taking action to feel safe despite flood risk. A narrative research approach makes it possible to delve into participants’ incarnated experiences of flooding and its psychosocial consequences. It allows to collect rich and singular accounts of experience, including recovery strategies that have not been documented before. In offering space for a diversity of EWE accounts, this research also makes the differentiated effects of EWEs more tangible. The projects knowledge transfer strategies aim to make these multiple experiences better known to the public and to those involved in managing floods and other crises. Taking into account a greater diversity of experiences during crises would promote more equitable care for those affected in the short, medium and long term.

Non-presenting authors: Lily Lessard, UQAR; Johanne Saint-Charles, UQAM

This paper will be presented at the following session: