Resilience of resettled households in post-earthquake resettlement: a study in Yongchang, Sichuan Province, China

This research project is about the resilience of resettled households in a post-earthquake, newly created city in Sichuan Province, China. Resettlement involves the reconstruction of space and place, which creates challenges in many aspects for the resettlers. Natural disasters are important triggers of resettlement. The special political economic regimes in China make resettlement projects be dominated by the state and accompanied by economic development initiatives. Resilience is especially important to disaster survivors and resettlers. It describes the ability of a system to cope with shocks and stresses, which includes the ability to make changes and transformations. Resilience is political, because its meaning, distribution of benefits and decision making are influenced by politics. Government and civil society both play their parts in resilience. Resettled households faced major challenges of earthquake losses, housing, employment and spatial and environmental changes. Many government policies and arrangements provided helps for resettlers, but they tended to disadvantage vulnerable groups who lacked legal titles and human capitals. Among livelihood capitals, social capitals, especially guanxi with government officials is crucial for a household's access to opportunities. Guanxi is closely linked to the widespread practices of cronyism. Livelihood strategies are constrained by capitals, but successful strategies can achieve favourable outcomes, which in turn enhance livelihood capitals. Transformations in physical environment, infrastructure and urbanisation are dramatic in this post-disaster resettlement project, but institutions tend to be persistent. Resilience is political, where institutions have major influences on who wins and who loses in the building of resilience. A strong government can mobilise resources to enhance people's resilience, but its authoritarianism and strong control can inhibit the development of civil society. Study on resilience should look at multiple scales and consider the broader political context before making conclusions on what resilience means to a social-ecological system