How lived experiences of disaster displacement reshape place attachment

Abstract

As climate change continues to drive disaster displacement occurrences, there is a critical need to explore how these experiences impact people’s attachment to place. The following research addresses this gap by examining how the Northern Rivers floods in 2022 affected displaced people’s bonds to their place, homes and communities. Drawing on the lived experiences of flood victims, the findings indicate that the disaster altered people’s bonds to the homes they live in or formally lived. This disrupted attachment to place, consequently leading to people experiencing weakened connection to once-significant places, was found to primarily stem from people’s safety concerns, fear of future disasters, and ongoing trauma. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on place attachment and climate-induced disasters, emphasising the need for further research to understand how disaster experiences can alter these bonds to place. Additionally, such insights are paramount to further inform disaster recovery strategies and thus the improved support of displaced populations in the current context of escalating climate crises. • Explores how disaster displacement disrupts social and emotional dimensions of place attachment. • Challenges dominant theories that portray place attachment following a disaster as inherently positive and unyielding. • Finds that displaced people’s fears over future flooding and trauma disrupted their sense of safety in their homes and communities. • This study introduces place aversion following disaster displacement, resulting from disaster-induced fear, trauma, and changes to the environment, which alters people’s feelings of place.