'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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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
28 Nov, 2015
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| In: |
Economic & political weekly
Year: 2015, Volume: 50, Issue: 48, Pages: 28-64 |
| ISSN: | 2349-8846 |
| DOI: | undefined |
| Online Access: | 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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| Author Notes: | Harish Naraindas |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 12.12.2017 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 2349-8846 |
| DOI: | undefined |