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Flood disaster subcultures in The Netherlands: the parishes of Borgharen and Itteren

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Abstract

The Netherlands knows a persistent threat of flooding. To adapt to this dangerous reality, the Dutch have cultivated what disaster research literature has labeled ‘disaster subcultures’ or a set of cultural (tangible and intangible) tools to deal with the recurrent hazard. While there is abundant attention for the way the Dutch ‘coastal’ and ‘low-lying’ communities deal with the recurrent threat of (coastal) flooding, less is known about the way the Dutch ‘high-lands’ deal with the yearly threat of (fluvial) flooding. This article presents the findings of an explorative research endeavor (2011–2013) aimed at discerning if the disaster subculture concept has contemporary relevance in the Netherlands, particularly with respect to flooding, and if so, whether applying this lens would reveal more about the nature of existing disaster subcultures. Because less is known about the Dutch ‘high-lands,’ we chose to look into the existence and attributes of disaster subcultures in the parishes Borgharen and Itteren, which experience a systematic threat of flooding. Our findings suggest that the disaster subculture lens is valuable as it enables the empirical appreciation of disaster subcultures, even in a small country like the Netherlands, and it unveiled elements of these neighboring parishes’ flood reality that otherwise might have gone unnoticed and that seem central to understanding these two parishes’ levels of vulnerability and resilience. It is our contention that the concept ‘disaster subculture’ makes a greater understanding possible of the cultural context from which vulnerability and resilience to specific and recurrent threats emerge.

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Notes

  1. Translated by Karen Engel from Dutch.

  2. In Dutch: ‘Blokhoofden’. The structure in Borgharen was inspired by the civil protection system the Netherlands used to have when the 1952 Civil Protection Law or ‘Wet Bescherming Bevolking (BB)’ was still in force. Central to this law was a civil protection organization based on volunteers. Society was divided into block groups (In Dutch: blokploeg) that were led by block leaders (blokhoofd).

  3. Being thrown into the deep refers to children learning how to swim. Children generally begin in shallow waters and then go onto more deep waters. Being thrown into the deep refers to the idea that a good way of quickly learning how to swim is essentially being thrown into deep waters from the start.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Disaster Studies, Wageningen University, Bode 18, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Karen Engel, Georg Frerks & Jeroen Warner

  2. Disaster Research Center, Delaware University, 163 Graham Hall, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Lucia Velotti

  3. Wageningen University, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Bart Weijs

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  1. Karen Engel
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  2. Georg Frerks
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  3. Lucia Velotti
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  4. Jeroen Warner
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  5. Bart Weijs
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Correspondence to Karen Engel.

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Engel, K., Frerks, G., Velotti, L. et al. Flood disaster subcultures in The Netherlands: the parishes of Borgharen and Itteren. Nat Hazards 73, 859–882 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1116-5

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