'Build back better' and the creation of a 'psychic economy of want' in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka

This paper suggests that post-disaster assistance in the Global South is a version of "slum development" on a compressed scale in terms of time and an expanded one in terms of resources. The index of this is the slogan "build back better." It implies that communities affected by...

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1. Verfasser: Naraindas, Harish (VerfasserIn)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 28 Nov, 2015
In: Economic & political weekly
Year: 2015, Jahrgang: 50, Heft: 48, Pages: 28-64
ISSN:2349-8846
DOI:undefined
Online-Zugang:Verlag, Volltext: http://dx.doi.org/undefined
Verlag, Volltext: http://www.epw.in/journal/2015/48/special-articles/build-back-better-and-creation-psychic-economy-want-post-tsunami
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Verfasserangaben:Harish Naraindas
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This paper suggests that post-disaster assistance in the Global South is a version of "slum development" on a compressed scale in terms of time and an expanded one in terms of resources. The index of this is the slogan "build back better." It implies that communities affected by a disaster are a priori a dilapidated lot, and disasters like the 2004 tsunami are a great cleansing. It allows aid agencies that arrive bearing gifts like Santa Claus an opportunity to transform a blighted existence into a civilised one. Each of them arrives not only with a heraldic logo but also with their own plans to build back better. The result is a plethora of architectural styles and ownership patterns leading to a realigning of relations among victims, and between victims and non-victims. This realigning, in a climate of sudden and large influx of money and material goods, rather than assuaging their loss and grief, creates a chimera of plenitude that ironically leads to an elusive but persistent and widespread sense of discontent across different segments of society.
Beschreibung:Gesehen am 12.12.2017
Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:2349-8846
DOI:undefined