Growth and Change
Oxford Brookes University (Gipsy Lane Campus)
"Disaster Strains" - An Exploratory, Thematic Analysis of the 2010-11 Brisbane Floods through the Theoretical Lenses of Agnew's General Strain Theory View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suaditya C Mohan
Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) is a criminology theory that explains how strains, and negative emotions that result from these strains, can push an individual to engage in maladaptive coping mechanisms. Strains are negative situations and circumstances that individuals tend to be averted by. Such strains can surface during periods of exogenous shocks, such as disasters, that can disrupt an individual’s wellbeing, day-to-day living, and ensuing interactions with others in the community. I conducted a secondary data, thematic analysis on 45 interview transcripts to understand the types of strains and responses that were expressed during the 2010-11 Brisbane floods. These transcripts were obtained through informal data sharing from the original Australian Community Capacity Study (Wave 4) that investigated the 2010-11 Brisbane floods. Interviewees were from the flood-affected suburbs of Chelmer, Tennyson, and Goodna, in South-East Queensland. Preliminary themes include “disempowering flood victims/survivors when offering help”, “latent strains in recovery period”, and “shared trauma and collective coping improves community relationships that in turn reduce anticipated strain”, as types of strains, responses, and coping mechanisms that were present across the dataset.
Community Health Strategies against SARS-CoV-2 in Santander: A Post-pandemic Case Study View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Diana Carolina Flórez Gómez, Leidy Yohana Flórez Gómez
Humanity experienced a health, social and economic crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), which generated high-level impacts on people's physical and mental health due to the disease's own and collateral effects. The pandemic meant a challenge for those who made decisions on how to address it and thus minimize its impact, due to high uncertainty from the scientific environment, the infodemic, and pre-existing difficulties in the health sector. Colombia is the third country in Latin America with the most cases of COVID-19, so addressing the pandemic involved developing strategies such as coordination between academia and the health sector, and working with the community to minimize the impact on vulnerable people. A case study was developed about the approach to the pandemic in the department of Santander in Colombia, as a social investigation in which the context and evolution over time were studied. The case study considered security policies in the face of social risk, regional actors from the public and private sectors that articulated to mitigate the effects, and community awareness to comply with security measures and promote self-care. As a result, it was identified that in the different stages of the pandemic the health sector maintained the challenge associated with the care of people's physical and mental health, that there was no adequate articulation between the government and academia, and that it is necessary to establish early actions related to community health to prevent and/or mitigate the impact of a pandemic.
