Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster ReconstructionNandini Gunewardena, Mark Schuller In Capitalizing on Catastrophe an international group of scholars and professionals critically examine how local communities around the world have prepared for and responded to recent cataclysms. The book's principal focus is the increasing trend to rely on the private sector to deal with natural disasters and other forms of large-scale devastation, from hurricanes and tsunamis to civil wars and industrial accidents. Called 'disaster capitalism' by its critics, the tendency to contract private interests to solve massive, urgent public problems may be inevitable but is extremely problematic_especially with respect to peoples who need help the most. Can private relief groups give the highest priority to potential and actual victims of large disasters, for example, if that means devoting fewer resources to protecting tourism and other profitable industries? The high-profile contributors to this volume straightforwardly tackle such timely and difficult questions of great public concern. |
Contents
Human Security versus Neoliberal Approaches to Disaster Recovery | 3 |
Deconstructing the Disaster after the Disaster Conceptualizing Disaster Capitalism | 17 |
Through a Glass Darkly Humanitarianism and Empire | 29 |
TOURISM AS RECONSTRUCTION | 45 |
International Tourism and Disaster Capitalism The Case of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras | 47 |
Peddling Paradise Rebuilding Serendib The 100Meter Refugees versus the Tourism Industry in Posttsunami Sri Lanka | 69 |
The Resilience of Vulnerable Households Adjusting to Neoliberal Capitalism in the Aftermath of Hurricane Iris | 93 |
EXPOSING KATRINA Class Race and Displacement | 115 |
PROLONGING RECOVERY Bypassing Accountability and Transparency | 155 |
Capitalization of Post911 Recovery | 157 |
The Foul Odor of Capital The Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal India | 173 |
DIVIDENDS OF CONFLICT Reconstruction as Reform | 189 |
Haiti Is Finished Haitis End of History Meets the Ends of Capitalism | 191 |
After the Storm The Aftermath of Guatemalas PostCivil War | 215 |
Envisioning Alternatives Seven Pragmatic Proposals to Advance Human Security in Disaster Assistance and Recovery | 231 |
| 235 | |
Race Class and the Politics of Death Critical Responses to Hurricane Katrina | 117 |
Disaster Displacement and Employment Distortion of Labor Markets during PostKatrina Reconstruction | 123 |
Class Inequality Liberal Bad Faith and Neoliberalism The True Disaster of Katrina | 147 |
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affected aftermath agencies allocation American areas assistance Bay Islands Belize Bhopal businesses Central America chapter civil society coastal communities coping corporations created crisis disaster capitalism disaster recovery displacement documented Donini donor ECLAC economic efforts employment environmental evacuees foreign funds gangs global goud groups Guatemala Gunewardena Haiti Haitian Honduras households housing human security humanitarian action Hurricane Iris Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Mitch impact income increased individuals institutions interim government labor Latino Liberty Bonds livelihood living LMDC low-income Lower Manhattan major Mark Schuller ment migration million neoliberal NGOs Oliver-Smith organizations Orleans percent Placencia political poor populations postdisaster poverty programs projects promote rebuilding reconstruction region remittances reported resettlement residents resilience response sector social Sri Lanka Stonich structural adjustment tion tional tourism tourism industry tsunami United USAID victims violence vulnerability wages workers World Bank