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Mapping Silences, Reconfiguring Loss: Practices of Damage Assessment & Repair in Post-Earthquake Nepal

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Austin LordAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 2, Issue CSCW

Article No.: 161, Pages 1 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/3274430

Published: 01 November 2018 Publication History

Abstract

In the aftermath of major natural disasters, governments, aid agencies, and affected populations engage in practices of sense-making to gauge the extent and severity of the crisis, direct response activities, and coordinate recovery planning. To understand the conduct and implications of these practices, we examined the official damage assessment implemented by the Government of Nepal following the April 2015 earthquake. In addition, we undertook participatory mapping to examine the consequences of this assessment in the Langtang Valley, a severely-affected area of the country. We argue that the informatics of post-disaster damage assessment in Nepal played a primary role in narrating the events of the 2015 earthquake, legitimating particular paths toward recovery in the aftermath, and limiting opportunities for alternative configurations of social life that emerge during disasters. Our research demonstrates the ways that forms of sense-making afforded by information technologies play central roles in enacting repair-work following crisis and breakdown.

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Index Terms

Mapping Silences, Reconfiguring Loss: Practices of Damage Assessment & Repair in Post-Earthquake Nepal
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 2, Issue CSCW

November 2018

4104 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3290265

Editors:
Karrie Karahalios
University of Illinois & Adobe
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Andrés Monroy-Hernández
Snap Inc.
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Airi Lampinen
Stockholm University
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Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology

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Published: 01 November 2018

Published in PACMHCI Volume 2, Issue CSCW

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19877-w
Palacios Abad BBelding EVigil-Hayes MZegura E(2024)Mending the Fabric: the Contentious, Collaborative Work of Repairing Broadband MapsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870038:CSCW2(1-24)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687003
Paudel SNorris WSoden R(2024)Aftermath: Infrastructure, Resources, and Organizational Adaptation in the Wake of DisasterProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36372948:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637294
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