This book taps into discussions about social vulnerability, empowerment, and resistance in relation to disaster relief and recovery. It disentangles tensions and dilemmas within post-disaster empowerment, through a rich ethnographic narrative of the work of Occupy Sandy in Rockaway, New York City, after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It details both a remarkable collaborative relief phase, in which marginalized communities were empowered to take active part, as well as a phase of conflict and resistance that came about as relief turned to long-term recovery.
This volume particularly aims to understand how community empowerment processes can breach pre-disaster marginalization in the aftermath of disasters. It connects with broader emancipatory literature on dilemmas involved in empowerment ‘from the outside’. In a future of potentially harsher climate related disasters and increased social vulnerability for certain communities, this book contributes to a full and nuanced understanding of community empowerment and vulnerability reduction.
This book will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists, and urban studies researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in disaster management, disaster risk reduction, social vulnerability, community empowerment, development studies, local studies, social work, community-based work, and emancipatory theory.
Author(s): Sara Bondesson
Series: Routledge Studies in Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate Change
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 118
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1 Shaking Things Loose
Meeting Occupy Sandy in Rockaway
Shaking Things Loose – Disasters as Windows of Social and Political Change
Barking Up the Wrong Tree – Crisis Management’s Inability to Fix Social Vulnerability
What Does Occupy Sandy in Rockaway Bring to the Table?
Mixing It Up – Living and Breathing the Field
Outline of the Book
References
2 Most Affected, Least Heard
Most Affected…
…and Least Heard
Conclusion
References
3 Ain’t No Power Like the Power of the People
Post-disaster Empowerment Processes
Emergent Groups in Post-Disaster Settings
Inside Out Or Outside In: A Puzzle of Empowerment
Conclusion
References
4 Tales of a Peninsula Shattered and Divided
A Peninsula Shattered
Rockaway: From Summer Resort to a Place of Socioeconomic Marginalization
A Peninsula Divided
Conclusion
References
5 Paths of Empowerment in Disaster Relief
Cut From the Same Cloth: Occupy Sandy as Part of the Wider Occupy Movement
A Sister Is Born: Occupy Sandy Emerges
“You Are Not the Protagonist of This Story”
Inclusion, Autonomy, and Horizontality
Everyone Is In: Empowerment Through Inclusion
Everything Is Good: Empowerment Through Autonomy
Everyone Is a Leader: Empowerment Through Horizontality
Conclusion
References
6 Paths of Post-Disaster (Dis-)Empowerment
Relief Turns to Long-Term Recovery
Empowerment Through Participating, Organizing, and Learning
“There Were Pieces of the Puzzle That Weren’t Written in the Books”
Disempowerment Through Misrepresented Subject Positions
Disempowerment Through Lack of Transparency
Organic Organizational Identity and Financial Question Marks
Hidden Agendas
Disempowerment Through Silenced Resistance
“We’re Feeling Pretty Empowered Already”
Conclusion
References
7 Saviors Trapped in Disaster (Dis-)Empowerment
A Summary of Sorts
The Savior Trap
The Intersectional Trap
The Resistance Trap
The Situated Marginalization Trap
A Trapped Disaster Scholar
References
Index
