Cultural Resilience after Disasters: Rebuilding Heritage and Community Identity

Kato Bukenya T.

Faculty of Business and Management Kampala International University Uganda

                                                                     ABSTRACT
This paper explores cultural resilience as a critical dimension of post-disaster recovery, focusing on the rebuilding of heritage and community identity. Disasters disrupt not only physical infrastructure but also the social fabric, cultural practices, and shared meanings that define communities. The study conceptualizes cultural resilience as the capacity to adapt, recover, and sustain both tangible and intangible heritage in the face of disruption. It highlights the central role of heritage, encompassing buildings, sites, traditions, and narratives, in restoring a sense of place, belonging, and continuity. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives and case-based insights, the paper examines strategies such as documentation and digitization of endangered assets, community-led memory initiatives, policy frameworks, and cross-cultural collaboration. It also addresses key challenges, including issues of representation, data preservation, governance, and unequal  recovery processes. The findings underscore that effective post-disaster recovery must go beyond physical reconstruction to incorporate cultural dimensions that reinforce identity and social cohesion. Ultimately, the paper argues for integrated, participatory, and rights-based approaches that position culture at the heart of resilience-building, ensuring that recovery processes are inclusive, context-sensitive, and sustainable over time.

Keywords: Cultural resilience; Post-disaster recovery; Heritage preservation; Community identity; and Social cohesion.

CITE AS: Kato Bukenya T. (2026). Cultural Resilience after Disasters: Rebuilding Heritage and Community Identity. IDOSR JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 11(1): 72-76.
https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSRJHSS/2026/1117276