Conservation of Resources and Disaster in Cultural Context: The Caravans and Passageways for Resources

In this article, I build on Lawrence Palinkas's empirical and theoretical approach and bring in more fully the focus of conservation of resources (COR) theory that Palinkas discusses. Palinkas analyzes technological disaster from psychological, sociological, and broader cultural perspectives. By more fully weaving in the principles and corollaries of COR theory, I attempt to more fully elaborate how the theoretical approach that Palinkas raises offers precise predictions, directions, and potentials for intervention and policy. I emphasize that personal, social, and material resources tend to develop and exist in aggregate, called resource caravans. Second, I introduce the concept that resource caravans are encouraged, discouraged, or outright prevented by environmental conditions that I call resource caravan passageways. This approach not only helps guide an understanding of the multiple tiers of devastation that likely will occur, it also guides insights regarding resiliency and rebuilding lives and communities, and reweaving the elements of culture that become torn when disasters have such major personal, social, and economic impact.