Capitalizing on Catastrophe Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction

by Gunewardena, Nandini; Schuller, Mark; Waal, De Alexander; Alexander, Sara E.; Button, Gregory; Damiani, Bettina; Donini, Antonio; Guillette, Elizabeth; Lubiano, Wahneema; Oliver-Smith, Anthony; Jr, Adolph Reed; Sandoval Girón, Anna Belinda; Stonich, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780759111035
• ISBN10: 0759111030
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-28
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

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. For example, can private relief groups give the highest priority to potential and actual victims of large disasters, 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. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Framing the Capitalization of Catastrophes
Human Security versus Neoliberal Approaches to Disaster Recovery	p. 3
Deconstructing the Disaster after the Disaster: Conceptualizing Disaster Capitalism	p. 17
Through a Glass, Darkly: Humanitarianism and Empire	p. 29
Tourism as Reconstruction
International Tourism and Disaster Capitalism: The Case of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras	p. 47
Peddling Paradise, Rebuilding Serendib: The 100-Meter Refugees versus the Tourism Industry in Post-tsunami Sri Lanka	p. 69
The Resilience of Vulnerable Households: Adjusting to Neoliberal Capitalism in the Aftermath of Hurricane Iris	p. 93
Exposing Katrina: Class, Race, and Displacement
Race, Class, and the Politics of Death: Critical Responses to Hurricane Katrina	p. 117
Disaster, Displacement, and Employment: Distortion of Labor Markets during Post-Katrina Reconstruction	p. 123
Class Inequality, Liberal Bad Faith, and Neoliberalism: The True Disaster of Katrina	p. 147
Prolonging Recovery: Bypassing Accountability and Transparency
Capitalization of Post-9/11 Recovery	p. 157
The Foul Odor of Capital: The Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, India	p. 173
Dividends of Conflict: Reconstruction as Reform
"Haiti Is Finished!" Haiti's End of History Meets the Ends of Capitalism	p. 191
After the Storm: The Aftermath of Guatemala's Post-Civil War	p. 215
Conclusion: Envisioning Alternatives: Seven Pragmatic Proposals to Advance Human Security in Disaster Assistance and Recovery	p. 231
References	p. 235
Index	p. 261
About the Contributors	p. 269
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