'Curious Conversations' podcast: Liesel Ritchie talks about community dynamics during and after disasters
Liesel Ritchie joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to talk about how sociology can help people better understand community dynamics during and after disasters. Ritchie shared the importance of understanding social capital’s role in community resilience as well as how natural disasters differ from other types of disasters that strike communities. She also emphasizes the need for strong community relationships and the importance of listening to community needs when providing assistance from the outside.
Takeaways
Disasters often provide great insight about the foundation of a community and its existing interpersonal relationships.
Technological disasters, such as an oil spill, often involve blame and litigation, which can make recovering from them more complicated than natural disasters.
Community outsiders desiring to help should focus on listening to the community’s needs, rather than just supplying what they think might be helpful.
About Ritchie
Ritchie is a professor of sociology in Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Her research focuses on community resilience and the social impacts of disasters, including conducting social impact assessments, with an emphasis on technological hazards and disasters, social capital, and rural renewable resource communities. During her career, she has studied a range of disaster events, including the Exxon Valdez, BP Deepwater Horizon, and Wakashio oil spills; the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash release; Hurricane Katrina; and earthquakes in Haiti and New Zealand.
Learn more
Disaster resilience sociologist Liesel Ritchie joins Center for Coastal Studies
About the podcast
"Curious Conversations" is a series of free-flowing conversations with Virginia Tech researchers that take place at the intersection of world-class research and everyday life. Produced and hosted by Travis Williams, assistant director of marketing and communications for the Office of Research and Innovation, university researchers share their expertise and motivations as well as the practical applications of their work in a format that more closely resembles chats at a cookout than classroom lectures. New episodes are shared each Tuesday.