Local perspectives on landslide prevention and management in Kalimpong district, West Bengal, India

Abstract

PurposeThis paper is joint reflection on the role of research assistants (RAs) in fieldwork for disaster risk research, particularly at the doctoral level. The paper has been co-authored by Gurung, who worked as a RA with the other author McGowran during his doctoral field research in Kalimpong from May 2019 to January 2020. The piece allows Gurung to voice his ideas on the research in a published research output and allows both authors to reflect on how the collaborative approach taken helped to make the research more responsive to, and reflective of, the problems people affected by landslides in Kalimpong face. The paper aims to highlight the benefits of working with RAs on landslide prevention and management in areas that may be unfamiliar and to provide a space for the RAs to voice their opinion on the research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is split into sections written by and in the voice of the authors. This reflects a compromise between wanting Gurung's voice to be clearly heard in the piece and the challenges of non-academically trained RAs contributing to academic outputs that require specific training. Brief outlines of Kalimpong district disaster research in the region are set out by McGowran initially. Gurung then outlines how he became involved in the research and how this affected the research methodology. He reflects on how the research played out and presents some brief reflections on the findings. McGowran then concludes the piece.FindingsThe authors discuss how landslides in Kalimpong are related to locally specific political, economic, cultural and physical processes. It is only through discussing these processes with the people who live with and are affected by these landslides that this more holistic understanding can be gained, even though complete explanations are never usually found. Ideas for further research into landslides in Kalimpong and elsewhere are presented, centering on the involvement of people affected by disasters in this research.Originality/valueThe authors hope the publication of the paper might set more of a precedent for the voice of RAs – and those who are affected by disasters – to be more clearly heard in disaster risk research and practice in future. More of this type of research could help to address some of the issues this special issue raises.