Paper details

Paper authors	Stefanie Dens
In panel on	What is holding us back? Humanitarian Reform and the Shift to Locally-Led Response
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper contributes to the search for area-based approaches within the on-going humanitarian reform debate. The central argument is that a reinterpretation of vernacular hazard coping strategies, implicitly inscribed within the urban tissue and realm, can spatially host (inter)national humanitarian aid, making the case for a context specific, locally led response and following (re)construction.
Through the case of Bungamati and Khokana, two Newar towns in the southern periphery of the Kathmandu Valley, the paper elaborates on how vernacular preparedness and response are embedded in the urban tissue as implicit action plans. The urban tissue, grown as a dynamic process of adaptation over time thus forming a repository of –in this case- both monsoon and seismic hazard knowledge forms the central argument. The paper draws parallels between the annual socio-cultural traditions of urban maintenance and emergency rehearsals, via the monsoon-based urban calendar, and elaborates on the concepts of the ‘la chi’s’ (courtyards), the ‘Guthi’s’ (a socio-economic organization), and ‘jatra’s’ (festivity routes) as places and cultural habits where (inter)national humanitarian support can plug into, diverting the contemporary delivery chain for a supportive conjured (inter)national effort.
The paper therefore graphically dissects the transformation of the urban tissue over time and localizes the implicit action plans through interviews and in-depth fieldwork from August 2015 onwards. Findings are complemented with literature study and framed back to the contemporary reform debate.

Back