Container life in post-earthquake Croatia

Lana Peternel, PhD and Dan Podjed, PhD are the authors of the scientific paper Container life in post-earthquake Croatia. The article is published in “Focaal - Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology“, indexed in the Scopus database in Q1 for Anthropology (2023).

Abstract: This article focuses on experiences of people in the Banija region and specifically the town of Petrinja, Croatia, after an earthquake hit the area in December 2020. It presents their reflections on being confined to “container homes” in three different situations: living in container settlements on the outskirts of town; spending time in a container shopping center; and finding shelter in containers adjacent to destroyed houses. The study shows that temporary container housing frequently turned into permanent living and working solutions during the three years of post-earthquake reconstruction. It also argues the importance of acknowledging that the sense of isolation in disaster-affected areas and the loss of potential for renovation and development do not merely arise from “container life” but reveal the longer-run “polycrisis” involved.

The article is a result of the bilateral research project Isolated People and Communities in Slovenia and Croatia – ISOLATION. The project is funded by the Croatian Science Foundation and the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency.

The paper is available in open access at the link.