Abstract

SAAVEDRA, Juan; RUBIO CARRASCO, Casandra; VALENZUELA CONTRERAS, Karina  and  BALBOA JIMENEZ, Víctor. Local Memory and Climate Disaster Management: Women’s Leadership Experience in Nonguén. Región y sociedad [online]. 2019, vol.31, e1240. ISSN 2448-4849.  https://doi.org/10.22198/rys2019/31/1240.

This article’s objective is to address women’s local knowledge, which has impact on climate change-related disasters coping mechanisms. The study involves Valle Nonguén in Concepción (Chile) local memory production associated with the last major floods. The way women created adaptive responses during 2005 and 2006 natural disasters to help their families and their community was examined through qualitative study. Interviews to twenty women who leaded community during the events were applied. Results show that women leaders express in their discourse differentiated roles, dissimilar to the traditional and ingrained. Even though the study is limited to Nonguén, results can be compared with other Latin America’s communities. Its interest lies in the fact that women were the keepers of those disasters memory, and it was helpful to overcome later similar situations in the territory.

Keywords : collective memory; women; social roles; climate change; flood prevention; local community; Chile.