Making Things Happen:

“Making Things Happen: Community Participation and Disaster Reconstruction in Pakistan”

What is the use of anthropology in construction or disaster reconstruction? That question is addressed in a detailed account of one such project in a book by SFAA TIG Risk and Disaster member Jane Murphy Thomas. Entitled ‘Making Things Happen: Community Participation and Disaster Reconstruction in Pakistan’, it is about the Pakistan Earthquake Reconstruction and Recovery Program, which rebuilt 77 large high schools and health facilities on schedule in six years even in the most challenging of settings: a remote mountainous region, in the midst of community and international tensions and conflict. Analyses of this project attribute success to its anthropological and participatory approaches and strong construction management. Book content demonstrates how different disciplines such as anthropology, development, peace and conflict sensitivity, engineering, architecture can work together for mutual benefit. 

For release in July by Berghahn Books, this book may be of interest for university course work or used other ways by academics, researchers, practitioners and others. For this work, the author has received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, the WAPA Praxis Award for 2021 and the book has been selected by Knowledge Unlatched for open access.  See the catalog listing: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/MurphyThomasMaking

For more information: janemurphythomas@gmail.com