Into the Field: Three Italian Earthquakes

Abstract

Three fieldworks present the choice of earthquakes and the preexisting environmental and organizational conditions of the Umbria, Molise, and Abruzzo regions before the earthquakes. This chapter especially considers the impact phase of the earthquakes and their physical features. It also includes reflections of the personal coming of myself, as a researcher, and some considerations about these three fieldworks and the environmental and social conditions of the regions. It can be explained as a brief ethnographic approach to the fieldwork that is important for the future reflections on the sense of community, sense of place, and place attachment. Furthermore, this chapter explains fundamental ideas about social researchers and their ethics in the context of applied research within the sociology of disasters because this fieldwork made me aware of the possible distance between social researchers and earthquake victims, the social relationships among these two social actors, and the ethical questions of applied research.