Resilience and the Neoliberal Project

Abstract

Like sustainable development, disaster resilience can be conceptualized as a collective surge in science, policy, and practice. The strength of the resilience surge is based on the concept’s usefulness as a boundary object and in particular its resonance with the discourses and practices of neoliberalization, in which the role of the state is diminished and superseded by private–public partnerships and contracts. Current U.S. resilience approaches support particular types of state–society relationships, construct particular kinds of at-risk subjects, and privilege technocratic solutions to disaster vulnerability. Neoliberal disaster risk reduction strategies and their outcomes had a profound impact on post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans.

Keywords

post-Katrina New Orleans disaster recovery disaster resilience neoliberalization resilience discourse

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