Abstract

In this chapter, we propose a material–semiotic epistemological approach to understand the changing senses of place resulting from socio-environmental disasters. This perspective involves investigating the simultaneously symbolic, corporeal and geographical relations that characterise the production of new senses of place in post-disaster contexts. We propose the notion of assemblage as a conceptual tool to understand how senses of place are generated within a complex and dynamic network of influences and reciprocal variations between subjective, social and spatial aspects, articulating at the same time the relationship between individual experiences of place and social and institutional processes. To present, discuss and illustrate this material–semiotic approach, we draw on a part of the results of a study conducted in Chile, addressing multiple case studies of post-disaster situations.