EMIDIO DI TREVIRI, GRUPPO DI RICERCA SUL POST SISMA DELL’APPENNINO CENTRALE

Name of the Project

EMIDIO DI TREVIRI, GRUPPO DI RICERCA SUL POST SISMA DELL’APPENNINO CENTRALE.

Country, City, Neighbourhood

Areas affected by the 2016 earthquakes of Central Italy.

Website or social media of the project

http://www.emidioditreviri.org

Who is developing the project?

The project has been developed by researchers from affected areas and elsewhere who answered a call to gather for spontaneous, holistic, multidisciplinary, autonomous and community-engaging post-disaster research, launched by an association for self-help.

Brief description

«Emidio di Treviri» is a collective research group that formed in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit central Italy in 2016-2017. The group, that comprises researchers coming from different disciplines, relies on on-field academic research as the main activism tool to establish criticism to the ways that post-earthquake conditions are being managed by the governmental bodies.

Objectives of the Project

The main objective of the action is to identify the consequences that the post-earthquake management is having on affected populations, especially those who had been forced to relocate. The group investigates through an anthropological, psychological, architectonic and human geographical point of view, showing how the government relocation strategy is causing deep changes in the social/economic structure of the areas, which were suffering of rural-related issues even before the seismic event. At the same time, the group is proposing alternative policies to trigger the demographic and economic recover of the territory, promoting and testing crowd sourced strategies that are less bureaucratic, less constrained by a top-down organisation approach that obstacles chances of informal but efficient community-management of basic services, easily performable by groups of citizens directly on their properties or in available buildings, and self-reconstruction of buildings (when possible).

Tools and Methods

The group is composed by several Research Networks, each of them is focusing on specific effects of the seismic event or specific post-disaster management policies and consequences, each group being strong of the correct expertise required by the case and is producing research material of academic level, through on-field quantitative and qualitative methods.

It then proceeds to share the knowledge produced through seminars and meetings with the affected population, to further discuss the findings, to evaluate pro & cons of the policies proposed and implemented by the government and the alternative solutions possible.

What methodologies does the project use?

  • organised and open professional research
  • exchange and co-production of knowledge with locals
  • on field best-practices collection and sharing
  • digital communication
  • presence in affected areas
  • crowdfunding

General context

The earthquake impacted a rural territory already affected by several problems. Since the governmental emergency plan produced the relocation of many residents, the group started to research evidence of how such approach would further weaken the socio-economical status of the region, at the same time trying to let other underestimated local issues emerge in order to find solutions in time to avoid permanent damage.

Selected tags about the project

#open_research
#autonomous_research
#crowdsourced_knowledge
#postdisaster_activism

How does it develop in time?

So far the group has successfully run three yearly general meetings, where the knowledge produced is shared between researchers, local population and visitors participating at the meeting, which lasts several days and takes place in several locations in the affected areas.

Beneficiary

The research groups are the main actor of the project, and they benefice from the disaster-research expertise they are accumulating; however, the affected population and their cultural/architectural heritage are beneficiaries too since they co-produce the research material which is ultimately meant to help and foster the recovery of the territory and the society they live in.

Results

The research group is not producing knowledge ex-post, since the output material is not intended to explain a past phenomenon, but it is studying the daily, ongoing development of the social-psychological and physical condition of the affected areas.

The result is not a critical report or an analysis about circumstances that already happened and are concluded, but instead is the creation of a research team that works as a tool able to sense the current conditions of the population and the physical heritage of the affected zones.

How is it evaluated?

It is evaluated as a smart and interesting example of how communities can activate themselves, leveraging on their human capital, coordinating their professionals and scholars to create a research network and produce practical, live, inside knowledge, with the final aim of fostering the post-earthquake recovery.

Links and references

http://www.emidioditreviri.org

Pictures, illustrations

http://www.emidioditreviri.org