This paper explores the intersection of governmental disaster management practices and the lived experiences of flood-affected communities in the Republic of Cyprus, with an analytic emphasis on emotions and narratives tied to incidents, memories and expectations of disaster. It examines how these emotional states and narratives acquire a political afterlife, shaping interactions between citizens and the Cypriot state.
The data presented are drawn from field site visits in flood-affected communities in Cyprus and ten unstructured interviews and house visits with individuals whose homes were damaged in previous floods. Using an anthropologically oriented analysis, the paper investigates the role of emotion as a key aspect of localized disaster politics in Cyprus.
Our research shows that affected individuals and communities perceive disaster as an infrastructural and political issue rather than merely a climatic one. The data also reveal that emotion plays a crucial role in how individuals navigate past experiences and future expectations of disaster. Emotion in these narratives reflects social abjection rooted in institutional mistrust and communal perceptions that frame disaster preparedness as an individual rather than a collective effort.
As we show by ethnographically focusing on the narratives of individuals affected by flooding in the Cypriot district of Larnaca, emotion serves in reconciling subjective and social facets of disaster in meaning-making narratives, thus imbuing the event of disaster with political, transformative potential.
