Flooded: An Auto-Ethnography of the 2011 Bangkok Flood

Authors

  • Erik Cohen Hebrew University of Jerusalem

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-5.2-8

Keywords:

Auto-Ethnography, Bangkok 2011 Flood, Disaster, Floods, Home

Abstract

In this personal account I report my perceptions, experiences, and conduct during the 2011 Bangkok flood, in which my home and neighbourhood have been badly inundated and damaged. Therefore, I draw on auto-ethnography as an increasingly popular, though controversial qualitative methodology in social sciences. Though personal, the account has some broader implications, deriving primarily from the examination of the relationship between my perceptions and conduct in the disaster and my life experiences and present social position, as set against the perceptions and conduct of my Thai wife, our neighbours, and the broader community. The contrast throws some light on an aspect of Thai culture rarely discussed in the literature: the Thai response to disaster.

Author Biography

Erik Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Erik Cohen is the George S. Wise Professor of Sociology (Emeritus) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught between 1959 and 2000. He has conducted research in Israel, Peru, the Pacific Islands, and, since 1977, in Thailand.      

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Published

2012-12-30

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2012): Environment

Section

Current Research on Southeast Asia

License

Copyright (c) 2015 SEAS – the Society of South-East Asian Studies

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