Robin Leichenko and Karen O'Brien
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195177329
- eISBN:
- 9780199869800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177329.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the 21st century, namely global environmental change and globalization. It presents a conceptual framework for ...
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This book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the 21st century, namely global environmental change and globalization. It presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between these two processes, and illustrates, through case studies, how these interactions create situations of “double exposure.” Drawing upon case studies largely related to climate change, the book shows how prominent recent and current environmental events — recurring droughts in India, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the melting of the Arctic ice sheet — demonstrate different pathways of interaction between globalization and global environmental change. Each of these pathways shows how broader human security concerns, including increasing inequality, growing vulnerability, and unsustainable rates of development, are integrally connected to both processes of global change. The double exposure framework not only sheds light on the dangers associated with these two global processes, but also reveals possibilities for using the interactions to generate opportunities for positive action. The book ultimately challenges the ways that global environmental change and globalization are viewed and addressed. By drawing attention to double exposure, the book shows how integrated responses to global environmental change and globalization can create new types of synergies that promote sustainability and enhance human security.Less
This book explores the connections between two of the most transformative processes of the 21st century, namely global environmental change and globalization. It presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the interactions between these two processes, and illustrates, through case studies, how these interactions create situations of “double exposure.” Drawing upon case studies largely related to climate change, the book shows how prominent recent and current environmental events — recurring droughts in India, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the melting of the Arctic ice sheet — demonstrate different pathways of interaction between globalization and global environmental change. Each of these pathways shows how broader human security concerns, including increasing inequality, growing vulnerability, and unsustainable rates of development, are integrally connected to both processes of global change. The double exposure framework not only sheds light on the dangers associated with these two global processes, but also reveals possibilities for using the interactions to generate opportunities for positive action. The book ultimately challenges the ways that global environmental change and globalization are viewed and addressed. By drawing attention to double exposure, the book shows how integrated responses to global environmental change and globalization can create new types of synergies that promote sustainability and enhance human security.
Jamie Peck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199580576
- eISBN:
- 9780191595240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580576.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter examines the project of the ‘new urban right’, highlighting the role of neoliberal think tanks and their ‘organic intellectuals’ in the development of new policy frames and strategies. ...
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This chapter examines the project of the ‘new urban right’, highlighting the role of neoliberal think tanks and their ‘organic intellectuals’ in the development of new policy frames and strategies. It begins with the right's narration of urban crises in post-1975 New York City before examining the neoliberal makeover of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. During this time, welfarist modes of urban governance have been displaced by a dogmatic (but at the same time inventive) form of neoliberal urbanism, based on the moral reregulation of the poor, together with state-assisted efforts to reclaim the city for business, the middle classes, and the market. Yet neoliberal urbanism has also been an adaptive project, evolving over time and space: if the shift in the ideational climate was a slow, incremental, and largely endogenous one in New York, it roared in from out of town, with violent intensity, in New Orleans.Less
This chapter examines the project of the ‘new urban right’, highlighting the role of neoliberal think tanks and their ‘organic intellectuals’ in the development of new policy frames and strategies. It begins with the right's narration of urban crises in post-1975 New York City before examining the neoliberal makeover of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. During this time, welfarist modes of urban governance have been displaced by a dogmatic (but at the same time inventive) form of neoliberal urbanism, based on the moral reregulation of the poor, together with state-assisted efforts to reclaim the city for business, the middle classes, and the market. Yet neoliberal urbanism has also been an adaptive project, evolving over time and space: if the shift in the ideational climate was a slow, incremental, and largely endogenous one in New York, it roared in from out of town, with violent intensity, in New Orleans.
Larry Rockwood, Ronald Stewart, and Thomas Dietz (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195309454
- eISBN:
- 9780199871261
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309454.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This book reviews and analyzes the period (roughly from the 1950s to the present) when the “environment” became an issue as important as economic growth, or war and peace. The aim is to assess the ...
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This book reviews and analyzes the period (roughly from the 1950s to the present) when the “environment” became an issue as important as economic growth, or war and peace. The aim is to assess the current situation, and begin planning for the challenges that lie ahead. Most people are aware of both the environmental destruction taking place around the world and of the specter of climate change. The devastation of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina illustrates the potential for disaster when climate change is combined with the mismanaged environmental policy. How did we get to this point? What has been done and what can be done to avoid future environmental disasters? Thirty-two contributing authors (among them, one of the principal drafters of the National Environmental Policy Act, Chief of the African Environment Division and the World Bank, Vice President of the Center for Conservation Innovation at the World Wildlife Fund, President of the Zoological Society of London, former President of the Ecological Society of America) use their unique, authoritative perspective to review the evolution of environmental science and policy in the past half century. Less
This book reviews and analyzes the period (roughly from the 1950s to the present) when the “environment” became an issue as important as economic growth, or war and peace. The aim is to assess the current situation, and begin planning for the challenges that lie ahead. Most people are aware of both the environmental destruction taking place around the world and of the specter of climate change. The devastation of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina illustrates the potential for disaster when climate change is combined with the mismanaged environmental policy. How did we get to this point? What has been done and what can be done to avoid future environmental disasters? Thirty-two contributing authors (among them, one of the principal drafters of the National Environmental Policy Act, Chief of the African Environment Division and the World Bank, Vice President of the Center for Conservation Innovation at the World Wildlife Fund, President of the Zoological Society of London, former President of the Ecological Society of America) use their unique, authoritative perspective to review the evolution of environmental science and policy in the past half century.
Harvey Molotch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163581
- eISBN:
- 9781400852338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163581.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the ...
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The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.Less
The inspections we put up with at airport gates and the endless warnings we get at train stations, on buses, and all the rest are the way we encounter the vast apparatus of U.S. security. Like the wars fought in its name, these measures are supposed to make us safer in a post-9/11 world. But do they? This book explains how these regimes of command-and-control not only annoy and intimidate but are counterproductive. The book takes the reader through the sites, the gizmos, and the politics to urge greater trust in basic citizen capacities—along with smarter design of public spaces. The book criticizes a range of security structures and protocols: airport security that requires body searches while generating long lines of queuing people; New Orleans water projects that precipitated the Hurricane Katrina flood, and the militarized disaster response that further endangered residents; even gender-segregated public restrooms. The book recommends simple improvements, from better structural design and signage to assist evacuations to customer-service procedures that help employees to spot trouble. More so, it argues for a shift away from command and control toward a security philosophy that empowers ordinary people to handle crises. The result is a far-reaching re-examination of the culture of public fear.
Robin M. Leichenko and Karen L. O'Brien
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195177329
- eISBN:
- 9780199869800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177329.003.0006
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter demonstrates how processes of global change are affecting vulnerability to all types of shocks and extreme events in urban areas. It first shows how both processes are altering ...
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This chapter demonstrates how processes of global change are affecting vulnerability to all types of shocks and extreme events in urban areas. It first shows how both processes are altering biophysical, institutional and economic conditions in cities throughout the world. It then illustrates the pathway of context double exposure through a case study of Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans — as in many other coastal urban areas in the world — global change processes, including the transformation of wetlands and river systems, changes in the structure of the economy; neoliberal policy shifts have made the city and many of its residents less resilient to all types of shocks. By showing how both global environmental change and globalization together affect vulnerability in an urban context, the chapter points toward actions and policy responses that may enhance the resilience of urban systems and urban residents.Less
This chapter demonstrates how processes of global change are affecting vulnerability to all types of shocks and extreme events in urban areas. It first shows how both processes are altering biophysical, institutional and economic conditions in cities throughout the world. It then illustrates the pathway of context double exposure through a case study of Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans — as in many other coastal urban areas in the world — global change processes, including the transformation of wetlands and river systems, changes in the structure of the economy; neoliberal policy shifts have made the city and many of its residents less resilient to all types of shocks. By showing how both global environmental change and globalization together affect vulnerability in an urban context, the chapter points toward actions and policy responses that may enhance the resilience of urban systems and urban residents.
Mallory McDuff
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195379570
- eISBN:
- 9780199869084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379570.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter reveals how churches are transforming the ministry of disaster relief and rebuilding by integrating the environment into their efforts. Many churches and faith organizations are making ...
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This chapter reveals how churches are transforming the ministry of disaster relief and rebuilding by integrating the environment into their efforts. Many churches and faith organizations are making the environment a priority as they respond to the increasing scale of natural disasters precipitated by climate change. The stories in this chapter along the Gulf Coast include the congregation of St. John Baptist Church, which integrated energy efficiency into their rebuilt church; a group of innovative churches called Sustainable Churches for South Louisiana; a program called Desire Street Ministries, which rebuilds churches and educates youth; and the Jericho Road Housing Initiative, which is spearheading energy-efficient, affordable housing. The lessons learned point to the power of hope from faith, the importance of coordinating sustainability among denominations, the potential for partnerships with secular environmental groups, and the long-term economic gains from investing in green building.Less
This chapter reveals how churches are transforming the ministry of disaster relief and rebuilding by integrating the environment into their efforts. Many churches and faith organizations are making the environment a priority as they respond to the increasing scale of natural disasters precipitated by climate change. The stories in this chapter along the Gulf Coast include the congregation of St. John Baptist Church, which integrated energy efficiency into their rebuilt church; a group of innovative churches called Sustainable Churches for South Louisiana; a program called Desire Street Ministries, which rebuilds churches and educates youth; and the Jericho Road Housing Initiative, which is spearheading energy-efficient, affordable housing. The lessons learned point to the power of hope from faith, the importance of coordinating sustainability among denominations, the potential for partnerships with secular environmental groups, and the long-term economic gains from investing in green building.
Peter Slade
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195372625
- eISBN:
- 9780199871728
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372625.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
There is still strong resistance within Mission Mississippi to address issues of systemic social injustice as part of the message of Christian reconciliation; however, the book concludes that a ...
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There is still strong resistance within Mission Mississippi to address issues of systemic social injustice as part of the message of Christian reconciliation; however, the book concludes that a theology of open friendship, present in elements of Mission Mississippi's theology of racial reconciliation, is robust enough to start changing Mississippi. Mission Mississippi demonstrated this potential in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when it utilized its church networks to help coordinate aid distribution to the Gulf Coast.Less
There is still strong resistance within Mission Mississippi to address issues of systemic social injustice as part of the message of Christian reconciliation; however, the book concludes that a theology of open friendship, present in elements of Mission Mississippi's theology of racial reconciliation, is robust enough to start changing Mississippi. Mission Mississippi demonstrated this potential in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when it utilized its church networks to help coordinate aid distribution to the Gulf Coast.
Lee Wilkins
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195370805
- eISBN:
- 9780199776610
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195370805.003.0021
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Katrina was what practiced journalists might call a systems story with a human face. First, Katrina was about the systems put in place to deal with disasters and hazards. The political systems ...
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Katrina was what practiced journalists might call a systems story with a human face. First, Katrina was about the systems put in place to deal with disasters and hazards. The political systems Katrina engaged had their roots in local, state, and national government. But there were culture, economics and science as well, each having an impact on how the story was portrayed and understood. There were journalistic systems too, including definitions of news and understandings of role, mechanisms of news delivery, and craft demands to humanize the event. Ethical decisions played a part in all of it, from the individual words and images journalists selected, to what stories were covered and what staff was assigned. The thesis of this chapter is that the ethical principles that best fund such coverage can be subsumed under the notion of harm prevention, in part by being a “mitigation watchdog.” Ethically informed news coverage can both report on immediate events and work to prevent harm in ways that allow citizens of a democracy to hold themselves and their social and governmental institutions to account.Less
Katrina was what practiced journalists might call a systems story with a human face. First, Katrina was about the systems put in place to deal with disasters and hazards. The political systems Katrina engaged had their roots in local, state, and national government. But there were culture, economics and science as well, each having an impact on how the story was portrayed and understood. There were journalistic systems too, including definitions of news and understandings of role, mechanisms of news delivery, and craft demands to humanize the event. Ethical decisions played a part in all of it, from the individual words and images journalists selected, to what stories were covered and what staff was assigned. The thesis of this chapter is that the ethical principles that best fund such coverage can be subsumed under the notion of harm prevention, in part by being a “mitigation watchdog.” Ethically informed news coverage can both report on immediate events and work to prevent harm in ways that allow citizens of a democracy to hold themselves and their social and governmental institutions to account.
Harvey Molotch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163581
- eISBN:
- 9781400852338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163581.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
This chapter turns to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to demonstrate command and disarray in the way that city meets river. It describes how threats from nature become part of the social-political ...
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This chapter turns to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to demonstrate command and disarray in the way that city meets river. It describes how threats from nature become part of the social-political apparatus—with the Katrina disaster the unhappy result. It has become rather common to observe that “there is no such thing as a natural disaster,” and Katrina is surely a poster child for that assertion. Much of the history of the New Orleans area was a kind Katrina in the making. Building levees, canals, and other infrastructural elements for the sake of safety yielded eventual mayhem. The chapter traces out some of the details of the “downward precautionary spiral.” Each effort at a fix leads to a successive effort of the same sort, accumulating not as a series of individual safety features but as vulnerability to events of catastrophic proportion.Less
This chapter turns to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to demonstrate command and disarray in the way that city meets river. It describes how threats from nature become part of the social-political apparatus—with the Katrina disaster the unhappy result. It has become rather common to observe that “there is no such thing as a natural disaster,” and Katrina is surely a poster child for that assertion. Much of the history of the New Orleans area was a kind Katrina in the making. Building levees, canals, and other infrastructural elements for the sake of safety yielded eventual mayhem. The chapter traces out some of the details of the “downward precautionary spiral.” Each effort at a fix leads to a successive effort of the same sort, accumulating not as a series of individual safety features but as vulnerability to events of catastrophic proportion.
Karen Baker-Fletcher
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227457
- eISBN:
- 9780823236626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227457.003.0030
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter presents an ecological poem by Karen Baker–Fletcher, which circulates through the catastrophic hurricane experiences of Katrina and Rita.
This chapter presents an ecological poem by Karen Baker–Fletcher, which circulates through the catastrophic hurricane experiences of Katrina and Rita.
Andrea Miller, Shearon Roberts, and Victoria LaPoe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617039720
- eISBN:
- 9781626740174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617039720.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This book explores the media experiences of the dual disasters to hit the Gulf Coast within five years, Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The disaster journalism is compared ...
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This book explores the media experiences of the dual disasters to hit the Gulf Coast within five years, Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The disaster journalism is compared and contrasted as the authors explore the media-fed experiences, visuals, and narratives. The Katrina journalists have reluctantly grown into Oil Spill journalists. The book will look at this process of growth from the viewpoints of not only the journalists, but the public, the science community, and through an analysis of the journalists’ own content. This book explores the quality of journalism within these two events and the effects it may have on the public. Crisis media coverage affects the interpretation and the experience of an event. The premise is that it all leads back to the fundamentals of solid journalism and the importance of following these tenets consistently in an enduring crises atmosphere – especially when the crises are just years apart.Less
This book explores the media experiences of the dual disasters to hit the Gulf Coast within five years, Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The disaster journalism is compared and contrasted as the authors explore the media-fed experiences, visuals, and narratives. The Katrina journalists have reluctantly grown into Oil Spill journalists. The book will look at this process of growth from the viewpoints of not only the journalists, but the public, the science community, and through an analysis of the journalists’ own content. This book explores the quality of journalism within these two events and the effects it may have on the public. Crisis media coverage affects the interpretation and the experience of an event. The premise is that it all leads back to the fundamentals of solid journalism and the importance of following these tenets consistently in an enduring crises atmosphere – especially when the crises are just years apart.
Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450150
- eISBN:
- 9780801460654
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450150.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This introductory chapter argues that the consequences of the Great Recession are driven by social and political choices about how the economy is managed. It was not inevitable that the significant ...
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This introductory chapter argues that the consequences of the Great Recession are driven by social and political choices about how the economy is managed. It was not inevitable that the significant run-up in home prices that began in the late 1990s would end with more than eight million Americans losing their jobs and unemployment hitting a twenty-five-year peak. The chapter argues against ascribing the impact of the Great Recession to mere fate, instead it draws comparisons between the shockwaves generated by the economic recession and that of another recent catastrophe—Hurricane Katrina—thus highlighting crucial choices made during and after the aforementioned disasters struck.Less
This introductory chapter argues that the consequences of the Great Recession are driven by social and political choices about how the economy is managed. It was not inevitable that the significant run-up in home prices that began in the late 1990s would end with more than eight million Americans losing their jobs and unemployment hitting a twenty-five-year peak. The chapter argues against ascribing the impact of the Great Recession to mere fate, instead it draws comparisons between the shockwaves generated by the economic recession and that of another recent catastrophe—Hurricane Katrina—thus highlighting crucial choices made during and after the aforementioned disasters struck.
Beverly Bell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452123
- eISBN:
- 9780801468322
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452123.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than a quarter-million people and leaving another two million Haitians homeless. This book is a searing account of the first ...
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On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than a quarter-million people and leaving another two million Haitians homeless. This book is a searing account of the first year after the earthquake. It explores how strong communities and an age-old gift culture have helped Haitians survive in the wake of an unimaginable disaster, one that only compounded the preexisting social and economic distress of their society. The book examines the history that caused such astronomical destruction, and draws in theories of resistance and social movements to scrutinize grassroots organizing for a more just and equitable country. The book offers rich perspectives rarely seen outside Haiti. It takes the reader through displaced persons camps, shantytowns, and rural villages, where they get a view that defies the stereotype of Haiti as a lost nation of victims. It also combines excerpts of more than one hundred interviews with Haitians, historical and political analysis, and investigative journalism. The book investigates and critiques U.S. foreign policy, emergency aid, standard development approaches, the role of nongovernmental organizations, and disaster capitalism. Woven through the text are comparisons to the crisis and cultural resistance in the city of New Orleans, when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ultimately a tale of hope, the book will give readers a new understanding of daily life, structural challenges, and collective dreams in one of the world's most complex countries.Less
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than a quarter-million people and leaving another two million Haitians homeless. This book is a searing account of the first year after the earthquake. It explores how strong communities and an age-old gift culture have helped Haitians survive in the wake of an unimaginable disaster, one that only compounded the preexisting social and economic distress of their society. The book examines the history that caused such astronomical destruction, and draws in theories of resistance and social movements to scrutinize grassroots organizing for a more just and equitable country. The book offers rich perspectives rarely seen outside Haiti. It takes the reader through displaced persons camps, shantytowns, and rural villages, where they get a view that defies the stereotype of Haiti as a lost nation of victims. It also combines excerpts of more than one hundred interviews with Haitians, historical and political analysis, and investigative journalism. The book investigates and critiques U.S. foreign policy, emergency aid, standard development approaches, the role of nongovernmental organizations, and disaster capitalism. Woven through the text are comparisons to the crisis and cultural resistance in the city of New Orleans, when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ultimately a tale of hope, the book will give readers a new understanding of daily life, structural challenges, and collective dreams in one of the world's most complex countries.
Kate Parker Horigan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817884
- eISBN:
- 9781496817921
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817884.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. A better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster ...
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When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. A better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster response because stories that are widely shared about disaster determine how communities recover. This book shows how the public understands and remembers large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina, discussing unique contexts in which personal narratives about the storm are shared: interviews with survivors, Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun, Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Trouble the Water, and public commemoration during the storm’s 10th anniversary in New Orleans. In each case, survivors initially present themselves in specific ways, counteracting negative stereotypes that characterize their communities. However, when adapted for public presentation, their stories get reduced back to stereotypes. As a result, people affected by Katrina continue to be seen in limited terms, as either undeserving of or incapable of managing recovery. This project is rooted in the author’s own experiences living in New Orleans before and after Katrina. But this is also a case study illustrating an ongoing problem and an innovative solution: survivors’ stories should be shared in a way that includes their own engagement with the processes of narrative production, circulation, and reception. In other words, we should know—when we hear the dramatic tale of disaster victims—what they think about how their story is being told to us.Less
When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. A better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster response because stories that are widely shared about disaster determine how communities recover. This book shows how the public understands and remembers large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina, discussing unique contexts in which personal narratives about the storm are shared: interviews with survivors, Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun, Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Trouble the Water, and public commemoration during the storm’s 10th anniversary in New Orleans. In each case, survivors initially present themselves in specific ways, counteracting negative stereotypes that characterize their communities. However, when adapted for public presentation, their stories get reduced back to stereotypes. As a result, people affected by Katrina continue to be seen in limited terms, as either undeserving of or incapable of managing recovery. This project is rooted in the author’s own experiences living in New Orleans before and after Katrina. But this is also a case study illustrating an ongoing problem and an innovative solution: survivors’ stories should be shared in a way that includes their own engagement with the processes of narrative production, circulation, and reception. In other words, we should know—when we hear the dramatic tale of disaster victims—what they think about how their story is being told to us.
Shannon Winnubst
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231172950
- eISBN:
- 9780231539883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172950.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
With the help of Lacan's seminar on anxiety, I draw out characteristics of the Real to develop the doubled aporia of race and ethics in the neolbieral episteme. To develop this in a cultural mode, I ...
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With the help of Lacan's seminar on anxiety, I draw out characteristics of the Real to develop the doubled aporia of race and ethics in the neolbieral episteme. To develop this in a cultural mode, I conclude with a meditation on New Orleans, a city that helped to birth cool so long ago, and the non-event of Hurricane Katrina as an illuminating site of this doubled aporia and what it might mean to approach both race and ethics as the Real.Less
With the help of Lacan's seminar on anxiety, I draw out characteristics of the Real to develop the doubled aporia of race and ethics in the neolbieral episteme. To develop this in a cultural mode, I conclude with a meditation on New Orleans, a city that helped to birth cool so long ago, and the non-event of Hurricane Katrina as an illuminating site of this doubled aporia and what it might mean to approach both race and ethics as the Real.
Carl Lindahl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037962
- eISBN:
- 9781621039518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037962.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
The most important and compelling Katrina stories are those shared among survivors. Survivor interviewers train themselves to ask briefly and listen deeply in order to give the storyteller ...
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The most important and compelling Katrina stories are those shared among survivors. Survivor interviewers train themselves to ask briefly and listen deeply in order to give the storyteller sovereignty over the story, and to present the story before the public in a way that reflects the teller faithfully. The listener also forms an active bond with the teller. To demonstrate the strength of that bond and to let the untold story of the interviewer surface, this chapter presents two duets: in each a survivor-interviewer introduces herself, talks about her experiences with the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project, and then introduces one of the interviews that she has conducted.Less
The most important and compelling Katrina stories are those shared among survivors. Survivor interviewers train themselves to ask briefly and listen deeply in order to give the storyteller sovereignty over the story, and to present the story before the public in a way that reflects the teller faithfully. The listener also forms an active bond with the teller. To demonstrate the strength of that bond and to let the untold story of the interviewer surface, this chapter presents two duets: in each a survivor-interviewer introduces herself, talks about her experiences with the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project, and then introduces one of the interviews that she has conducted.
Dale Maharidge
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262478
- eISBN:
- 9780520948792
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262478.003.0020
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
One might believe that the authorities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which left some 70,000 rotting and abandoned buildings, would make a concerted effort to help the thousands of squatters ...
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One might believe that the authorities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which left some 70,000 rotting and abandoned buildings, would make a concerted effort to help the thousands of squatters who are now living in these buildings. However, help for the displaced comes down to two men, Shamus Rohn, twenty-eight, and Mike Miller, twenty-nine. They are outreach social workers for UNITY of Greater New Orleans, described as “a collaborative of sixty agencies working to end homelessness.” It was funded on a shoestring. Its mission statement: “Working to End Homelessness, Bringing New Orleans Home.” However, the title of “social worker” does not fully explain the job description of these two men. They can be described as the U.S. Marines of the social assistance world, the first to hit the backstreets of despair, armed not with weapons but with Magnum flashlights, on the front line of a lonely battle to help people in dark places.Less
One might believe that the authorities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which left some 70,000 rotting and abandoned buildings, would make a concerted effort to help the thousands of squatters who are now living in these buildings. However, help for the displaced comes down to two men, Shamus Rohn, twenty-eight, and Mike Miller, twenty-nine. They are outreach social workers for UNITY of Greater New Orleans, described as “a collaborative of sixty agencies working to end homelessness.” It was funded on a shoestring. Its mission statement: “Working to End Homelessness, Bringing New Orleans Home.” However, the title of “social worker” does not fully explain the job description of these two men. They can be described as the U.S. Marines of the social assistance world, the first to hit the backstreets of despair, armed not with weapons but with Magnum flashlights, on the front line of a lonely battle to help people in dark places.
Emmanuel David
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041266
- eISBN:
- 9780252099861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041266.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed ...
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Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed description of the group’s initial formation, the book chronicles its struggles from 2006 to 2012, beginning with the women’s efforts to invite lawmakers to see Katrina’s destruction firsthand and ending with their campaigns to restore the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Drawing on extensive interviews with Women of the Storm members, ethnographic observations, and historical documents, the book provides a detailed account of women’s civic activism in the wake of disaster, revealing the entire Katrina recovery in a more complex light. In addition to documenting the group’s influence on public policy, the book argues that members of Women of the Storm used post-disaster activism to establish meaningful cultural spaces in which they constructed gender solidarity, negotiated racial and socioeconomic differences, and crafted new forms of social and moral responsibility. The book addresses how Hurricane Katrina brought these women together and how they actively negotiated the everyday challenges of working across social divides.Less
Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed description of the group’s initial formation, the book chronicles its struggles from 2006 to 2012, beginning with the women’s efforts to invite lawmakers to see Katrina’s destruction firsthand and ending with their campaigns to restore the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Drawing on extensive interviews with Women of the Storm members, ethnographic observations, and historical documents, the book provides a detailed account of women’s civic activism in the wake of disaster, revealing the entire Katrina recovery in a more complex light. In addition to documenting the group’s influence on public policy, the book argues that members of Women of the Storm used post-disaster activism to establish meaningful cultural spaces in which they constructed gender solidarity, negotiated racial and socioeconomic differences, and crafted new forms of social and moral responsibility. The book addresses how Hurricane Katrina brought these women together and how they actively negotiated the everyday challenges of working across social divides.
Karl F. Seidman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199945511
- eISBN:
- 9780199333189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945511.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter provides an overview of Hurricane Katrina, the flooding of New Orleans and their impact on the scope of rebuilding that New Orleans faced. First, it summarizes the the evolution of ...
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This chapter provides an overview of Hurricane Katrina, the flooding of New Orleans and their impact on the scope of rebuilding that New Orleans faced. First, it summarizes the the evolution of Hurricane Katrina, its arrival on the Louisiana coast and the sequence of events and failures that resulted in the city’s flooding. A second section covers key aspects of the disorganized and slow government responses that followed the flooding and resulting human tragedy. In the third section, the scale of the destruction to New Orleans is detailed to show the enormous rebuilding challenge and the resulting uncertainty about the city’s future. The chapter concludes with a brief synopsis of existing research on New Orleans’ post-Katrina recovery and the book’s contribution to this research through deepening understanding of the grassroots rebuilding process at the neighborhood scale.Less
This chapter provides an overview of Hurricane Katrina, the flooding of New Orleans and their impact on the scope of rebuilding that New Orleans faced. First, it summarizes the the evolution of Hurricane Katrina, its arrival on the Louisiana coast and the sequence of events and failures that resulted in the city’s flooding. A second section covers key aspects of the disorganized and slow government responses that followed the flooding and resulting human tragedy. In the third section, the scale of the destruction to New Orleans is detailed to show the enormous rebuilding challenge and the resulting uncertainty about the city’s future. The chapter concludes with a brief synopsis of existing research on New Orleans’ post-Katrina recovery and the book’s contribution to this research through deepening understanding of the grassroots rebuilding process at the neighborhood scale.
David M. Burley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734881
- eISBN:
- 9781621034971
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734881.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
What is it like to lose your front porch to the ocean? To watch saltwater destroy your favorite fishing holes? To see playgrounds and churches subside and succumb to brackish and rising water? The ...
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What is it like to lose your front porch to the ocean? To watch saltwater destroy your favorite fishing holes? To see playgrounds and churches subside and succumb to brackish and rising water? The residents of coastal Louisiana know. For them hurricanes are but exclamation points in an incessant loss of coastal land now estimated to occur at a rate of at least twenty-four square miles per year. In this book, coastal Louisianans communicate the significance of place and environment. During interviews taken just before the 2005 hurricanes, they send out a plea to alleviate the damage. They speak with an urgency that exemplifies a fear of losing not just property and familiar surroundings, but their identity as well. People along Louisiana's southeastern coast hold a deep attachment to place, and this shows in the urgency of the narratives collected here. The meanings that residents attribute to coastal land loss reflect a tenuous and uprooted sense of self. The process of coastal land loss and all of its social components, from the familial to the political, impacts these residents' concepts of history and the future. The book includes updates for many of the subjects' narratives to reveal what has happened in the wake of the back-to-back disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.Less
What is it like to lose your front porch to the ocean? To watch saltwater destroy your favorite fishing holes? To see playgrounds and churches subside and succumb to brackish and rising water? The residents of coastal Louisiana know. For them hurricanes are but exclamation points in an incessant loss of coastal land now estimated to occur at a rate of at least twenty-four square miles per year. In this book, coastal Louisianans communicate the significance of place and environment. During interviews taken just before the 2005 hurricanes, they send out a plea to alleviate the damage. They speak with an urgency that exemplifies a fear of losing not just property and familiar surroundings, but their identity as well. People along Louisiana's southeastern coast hold a deep attachment to place, and this shows in the urgency of the narratives collected here. The meanings that residents attribute to coastal land loss reflect a tenuous and uprooted sense of self. The process of coastal land loss and all of its social components, from the familial to the political, impacts these residents' concepts of history and the future. The book includes updates for many of the subjects' narratives to reveal what has happened in the wake of the back-to-back disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
