ABSTRACT
The ideas of a euphoric state of post-disaster solidarity and therapeutic community seem to assume that communities live in a balance that is interrupted by catastrophes. After mass shootings, news reporters and the media at large are often the first outsiders provoking anger and resentment in communities targeted by mass violence. Conflict within communities is another major social consequence of crises and disasters. It has been linked to the process of increasing and decreasing solidarity in victim communities; after disasters, the surrounding communities are first thought to express solidarity and unity with the victims, but, after the initial aftermath, conflict often emerges between the victims and the larger community, as well as within the group of victims. In the analysis of the Finnish cases, this chapter considers some countering narratives in the personal narratives of the Jokela and Kauhajoki residents that contested the dominant interpretations presented in the master narratives.
