Emotions and representations of “the city” after the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila: children, education and social re-construction in a post-catastrophe context

Abstract

This article relates the results of a research study carried out on children and pre-teens (aged 7-13) from the city of L’Aquila three years a devastating earthquake that caused the death of hundreds of people and left thousands displaced. We tried to verify to what extent, three years later, the idea and the representation of this city was marked by the catastrophic event and the resulting conditions of life, and how the emotions and desires of children from L’Aquila diverged from those of their peers, living in other territories not hit by such devastation. We submitted a test to 204 children from L’Aquila and to a control group of 106 children from other territories. The research results highlighted that for children who had suffered a catastrophic event, the traumatic experience and the resulting conditions of urban life weakened their relationship with their city, thus alternating the general concept they have of the place they live in.

Keywords

• emotions
• representation of the city
• emergency
• catastrophe
• children’s drawings
• citizenship education