Socio-Cultural Constructions of Vulnerability and Resilience. German and Polish Perceptions of Threatening Aquatic Phenomena in Odra River Regions

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gabriela B. Christmann
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277230079

The aim of the project is to investigate in how far perceiving and coping with potential vulnerabilities and resiliencies - related to aquatic phenomena such as floods in river regions - is tied to and influenced by complex socio-cultural knowledge constructions. The project intends to address an existing research gap which can be identified in the field of vulnerability and resilience studies: There, strongly influenced by human ecology and natural hazards research, up to now, the terms vulnerability and resilience are still conceived of in an essentialist way as matters of fact. Although this is a legitimate perspective, this ignores that societies, on the basis of their past and present culturally influenced experiences with natural phenomena may socially construct their own reality of being vulnerable or resilient, a reality which becomes a reality sui generis and definitely has consequences for action strategies. What is required is empirical and conceptual work on the role of cultural knowledge orders in the socio-cultural construction of vulnerability and resilience. Against this background the research question of the project is: How are vulnerability and resilience constructions structured empirically in specific socio-cultural national and regional contexts and how are they rooted in cultural knowledge orders of a respective society? The research focus will be on selected Odra regions in Germany and Poland: the region of Eisenhüttenstadt, Frankfurt/Oder, Slubice and Wroclaw, where floods have become a hot topic at the very latest since 1997, the year of the severe Odra flooding. Thus, the German-Polish research team that comprises scholars from sociology, cultural science and literary studies aims at understanding and conceptualizing how perceptions of being vulnerable and resilient are discursively constructed and how cultural knowledge is woven into these constructions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Anna Barcz