Abstract
Mainstream psychological coping theories that are predominantly individualistic and apolitical tend to neglect diverging interests and social conflicts. Sociological approaches to social conflicts and their resolution and social capital approaches are able to capture these universal features of post-disaster contexts. However, socioculturally distinctive features, specific imbalances of power, and diverging personal and shared ways of dealing with disasters and related aid probably contribute to a locally specific way of coping with disaster aid goods and associated social conflicts. For instance, does the social standard for maintaining harmony (rukun) counter the development of social bitterness? In what way may it hinder resolutions of social conflicts? This chapter explores contributing elements of conflict dynamics and subsequently demonstrates the variety of ways of coping with conflicts. Identified coping styles ranged on a continuum with confrontational, clarifying, and direct (assimilative) strategies on one pole, subversive strategies in the middle, and indirect, accommodative, accepting strategies on the other pole. Several situational elements, such as sense of entitlement, social standing within the community as well as timing issues, that is, the probability of whether justice may still be achieved or not in the short or long term, seemed to moderate which strategy is enacted.
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Notes
- 1.
http://www.sphereproject.org/. Accessed 11 May 2013.
- 2.
http://www.alnap.org/. Accessed 11 May 2013.
- 3.
The earthquake in 2006 Bantul, Java, Indonesia, has been characterized as a “shelter-led emergency” (Wilson and Reilly 2007, p. 5). In this respect, funds distributed to provide for shelter reconstruction were also a major source for social discord.
- 4.
The three examined hamlets vary dramatically with regard to critical awareness about aid distribution and appeal processes, as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) empowerment program had only been carried out in Sido Kabul after the earthquake.
- 5.
For instance, an NGO donated reconstruction tools which were placed in the house of the temporary hamlet leader in Sido Kabul. Everybody who needed the tools was allowed to borrow them. However, the tools soon disappeared eliciting disappointment and anger among the villagers who still needed to use them.
- 6.
This was usually referred to as KKN ( = korupsi,kolusi,nepotism), that is corruption, collusion, and nepotism.
- 7.
All of the committee members were men and the committee included formal or informal neighborhood leaders and the hamlet leader. All of them had powerful positions within their community before the disaster struck which indicates the persistence of the ever-present village hierarchies and gender disparities.
- 8.
Homepage of the Network available at: http://www.globalnetwork-dr.org/home.html. Accessed 9 August 2013.
- 9.
The object of these emotions was other family members, neighbors, more distant persons such as the hamlet leader, or even entire communities. For instance, hamlets or neighborhoods inhabited by comparatively many civil servants had better connections to flows of government aid than other hamlets or neighborhoods. Families with migrant workers also had better access to money in order to rebuild emergency and permanent shelter. These differences in accessible aid—due to differences in bridging or linking social capital—contributed to feelings of injustice.
- 10.
Expressed with riku, that is, feeling awkward and malu, that is, feeling ashamed.
- 11.
This may partly be due to a methodological bias created by relying mainly on interview transcripts instead of behavioral observations for example. The interviews conducted by Javanese interviewers may also have further contributed to a moral pressure to, at least verbally, maintain highly valued positions of harmony and modesty.
- 12.
Persistent feelings of conflict related to the level of the personal relationship between alleged perpetrator and the person who felt betrayed. This interpersonal stance was not negotiated on a communal level which helped to limit disturbing and unsettling open social conflicts. Emotions were rarely expressed toward alleged perpetrators, but were rather shared with like-minded persons or family members.
- 13.
As noted previously, the prospect of appearing greedy and materialistic often stopped people from using confrontational personal strategies against the perpetrator(s) of perceived injustices.
- 14.
In Sido Kabul, many villagers also demanded the participation of female representatives as the head of the family is usually male (see Chap. 16).
- 15.
However, not all villagers seemed to know about this program and not all neighborhood leaders implemented it. Some decided to buy communal goods such as plates and glasses that could be used for any future communal feast, instead of organizing a specific reconciliation festival.
- 16.
http://ideajogja.or.id/. Accessed 12 May 2013.
- 17.
http://www.antikorupsi.org/eng/. Accessed 12 May 2013.
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The editors would like to thank Elise Serbaroli for her assistance in editing this chapter.
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Schwarz, S. (2014). Disaster Aid Distribution and Social Conflicts. In: Zaumseil, M., Schwarz, S., von Vacano, M., Sullivan, G., Prawitasari-Hadiyono, J. (eds) Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_14
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