This will be my latest article develop from my PhD research on coastal disasters on Manila Bay at the RMIT University School of Architecture and Urban Design. It will be published as a contribution to the special issue on Governing Complex Disasters for Southeast Asia: Multidisciplinary Journal, with Dr Carin Alejandria (Universiti Brunei Darussalam), Dr Rob Grace (Boston University), Dr Rob Smith (Deakin University) and myself as co-editors. A timely piece given that the effects of #CarinaPH (Gaemi) are sparking conversations about flood control and flood management.
Image 1: Visiting a small island sin Manila Bay surrounded by a seawall with a team of architects. Taken on 17 December 2020 by S. Cervantes.
Abstract
PURPOSE: This paper contributes to discourse about complex disasters by applying relational lenses to the study of coastal infrastructure (such as seawalls and dikes), thus departing from studies that focus on characterising, assessing, and predicting the physical resilience of hard structural forms that dominate knowledge about coastal infrastructure. APPROACH: This ethnographic study nuances Philippine coastal infrastructure through examining the material registers of a seawall bordering an island inhabited by artisanal fisherfolk. By “material registers”, this research refers to the socially informed ways of regarding and constructing material configurations and how the latter are enacted and resisted. Data collection was accomplished through focus groups with community leaders, on-site and remote interviews with homeowners, and archival research to further understand the spatial and policy context of the structure.
FINDINGS: The discussion focuses on the seawall’s three material registers (protection, fragility, and misrecognition) and reveals how infrastructure built for an island community of fisherfolk simultaneously fulfils, fails, and complicates the promise of disaster resilience. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Whereas studies of coastal infrastructure are focused on quantitative and predictive research regarding hard structural forms in megacities, this study apprehends disaster complexity through examining the socio-material and contested nature of infrastructure for coastal flood management in an island community of fisherfolk.
Download the accepted draft:
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