The role of culture in the resilience to wind: The case of the Penghu archipelago, Taiwan

Abstract

Resilience research has flourished since the publication of Holling's work, which has endured for half a century. Amount of resilience researchers noticed a significant gap is missing: the absence of a cultural perspective. However, there is no systematic work to address this flaw. Therefore, this research aims to examine ''the role of culture'' in the resilience to wind, with a focus on the Penghu archipelago in Taiwan, also known as the "wind islands." In addition to tropical typhoons in the summer season, people on the archipelago suffer from half a year of monsoons, and winter monsoon gusts sometimes reach the level of mediate typhoons.

To bridge this existing theoretical gap in resilience research, the research framework develops ''culturally oriented resilience'', encompassing two key notions: Cultural practices and cultural operations which are used to analyse the cultural responses to wind resilience on the Penghu archipelago. While cultural practice records specific cultural responses to wind at a particular moment in time, cultural operation places emphasis on the temporal perspective and the change of cultural patterns. This research categorises the functioning agents into three groups: Institutions, communities, and individuals, in order to examine their distinct roles in enhancing resilience. Additionally, through exploring how resilience as a Western concept travels to the Eastern academic discourse, examining the process of dissemination, acceptance and application.

Regarding the methodological choices, this research applied multi-qualitative approaches to gain a comprehensive understanding of wind resilience on the Penghu archipelago. This research digs into archives to trace the trajectory of wind resilience in the historical dimension; Mapping the traces of wind to examine the current adaptations from landscapes; conducts semi-structure interviews to understand the cognitive dimension of winds from experts and community members; and engages in participant observation for a direct interaction with informants. These four methods provide insights into how agents respond to the wind in terms of spatial and temporal aspects.

Using the frame of cultural practises and cultural operations reveals the respective roles among agents to wind resilience, and their cooperation and conflicts. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the meaning of cultural, spatial, and temporal dimensions in adaptation processes. On the one hand, monsoon is not viewed as a problem to be solved, but rather as an integral aspect of daily life on Penghu. On the other hand, typhoons are not deeply ingrained in awareness due to their infrequent occurrence. Regarding the intersection of adaptations, while these adaptations were primarily developed to mitigate the impact of monsoons, they also prove useful in the face of typhoons, which bring strong winds.

In conclusion, this research found culture orchestrates responses to wind on the Penghu archipelago. When the learning process and adaptations apply, culture plays a stronger role in facilitating wind resilience. Oppositely, when narratives among agents are mismatched, or the communication is insufficient, the culture plays an obstacle role in enhancing wind resilience.