The Red Sludge Took It All – Even Family Ties?

Abstract

In this paper I would like to describe the function and changes of family ties after a traumatic experience. In my analysis I compared life story interviews, which have been recorded in two periods: one and a half month after the Hungarian red sludge disaster in 2010 and three years later. As I placed this case in Ulrich Beck’s theoretical framework, named ‘risk society’, I had three main questions about 1) the changing of family ties after the disaster, 2) family’s role in trauma procession and 3) individuals’ future prospects regarding family life. This paper points out that there are definite gender differences in the individuals’ family perception, and the importance of distinguishing the perceptions about immediate and distant family. Generally, no long-term changes caused by the disaster could be observed in the analysed type of family ties. I would like to point at the possibilities in family life and family ties, which can help the trauma recovery procession and which debase it. The most important result of this paper is the main role of the entire and operable family ties in coping with trauma.