The Political Economy of a Natural Disaster: The Boxing Day Tsunami, 2004

Keys, Angela; Masterman-Smith, Helen; Cottle, Drew

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2006.0575a.x

Cited by 26 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Activist and some academic analyses of the tsunami aid enterprise ascribe an overwhelming neoliberal logic to the operation of aid (ANRHR, 2005;MONLAR, 2005aMONLAR, , 2005bBello, 2006;Keys, Masterman-Smith, and Cottle, 2006;Klein, 2007). Activist and some academic analyses of the tsunami aid enterprise ascribe an overwhelming neoliberal logic to the operation of aid (ANRHR, 2005;MONLAR, 2005aMONLAR, , 2005bBello, 2006;Keys, Masterman-Smith, and Cottle, 2006;Klein, 2007).…”

Section: Context: the Tsunami And Livelihoods Recovery In Sri Lankamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A discussion of relations of power in the context of post-tsunami rehabilitation also, necessarily, involves an engagement with one's understanding of the politics of disaster aid. Activist and some academic analyses of the tsunami aid enterprise ascribe an overwhelming neoliberal logic to the operation of aid (ANRHR, 2005;MONLAR, 2005aMONLAR, , 2005bBello, 2006;Keys, Masterman-Smith, and Cottle, 2006;Klein, 2007). Indeed, a focus on entrepreneurship can be seen to conform to the exigencies of neoliberal development strategies, but it is also equally the case that 'improvement schemes' (Li, 2007, p. 1) always serve a variety of goals, and 'the rush to identify hidden motives of profit or domination narrows analysis unnecessarily, making much of what happens in the name of improvement obscure' (Li, 2007, p. 9).…”

Section: Theoretical Framing: the Political Dimensions Of Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs, unveiling relations of power

Kapadia¹

2014

Disasters

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This paper analyses the performance of aid-funded livelihoods recovery efforts in Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, with special attention paid to the effects on the rural poor. It argues that successful livelihoods recovery was hampered by an excessive focus by aid agencies on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and by the lack of a politically informed understanding of the economy. Based on ethnographic and survey-based research, the study demonstrates that the category of 'entrepreneur' is misleading for large parts of the economy. Indeed, the desire to build an entrepreneurial economy actually hampered successful livelihoods recovery in Sri Lanka and, in some cases, reinforced inequitable relations of power. The paper concludes that for livelihoods recovery programmes to be effective, they must be founded on an understanding of the relations of power that constitute the economy; these relations operate across scales, and are historically and geographically specific.

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Section: Context: the Tsunami And Livelihoods Recovery In Sri Lankamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framing: the Political Dimensions Of Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs, unveiling relations of power

Kapadia¹

2014

Disasters

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“…An excess of unnecessary donations and/or inadequate essential donations are commonly observed after a disaster [48,63]. Therefore, materials that are distributed to rural households should be need-based and relevant to the local context.…”

Section: Neededmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Chapagain

Raizada

2017

Agric & Food Secur

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Here, we review the impacts of recent natural disasters in developing countries on rural agriculture and livelihoods with the objective of understanding gaps and providing recommendations. Lessons from these disasters demonstrate that national governments, aid agencies, and international/non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) are effective primarily at distributing short-term products (e.g. food packages and tarpaulin) to cities. Such products are inexpensive, simple to procure, and easily quantifiable for donors. Unfortunately, the literature suggests that many national governments and foreign NGOs are ineffective at assisting rural farmers in the short and long term. Given that the global community is somewhat effective at distributing short-term products, we suggest that a similar strategy should be developed for rural areas, but focusing on products that can assist farm households. There appears to be a gap in knowledge of effective products that can target such households after a disaster. We propose an emergency sustainable agriculture kit (eSAK) framework for disaster relief in rural areas that involves a comprehensive list of products that can be combined into packages to address the needs of shelter, hunger, first aid, seeds, preservation of indigenous crop varieties, and post-disaster labour shortages. We also propose ideas on how to re-purpose relief products provided to urban areas to assist with farm needs. Products highlighted are rolls of agricultural-grade plastics, low-oxygen grain storage bags, waterproof gardening gloves, multi-use shovels, seeds of early maturing crops, fertilizers, inexpensive farming tools, temporary food support, and first-aid kits. These products are needed, inexpensive, labour efficient, compact, lightweight, available/procurable on a large scale, simple, and re-usable. Furthermore, correct use and re-purposing of the products can be explained using accompanying graphical illustrations, which is critical for rural illiterate households. As distribution to rural areas is a challenge, especially after a disaster, we propose the use of pre-existing alcohol/cigarette/snackfood distribution networks as a novel strategy for rural disaster relief. These efforts must be in partnership with local officials and grassroots organizations, with dedicated funding from governments and international aid agencies. It is hoped that global stakeholders will benefit from these recommendations to assist affected farmers after a crisis.

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“…This immediately injected a degree of separation between the localised event and the international political economy of disaster and recovery. This made it possible for us to think and write of the 'victims' of the tsunami without, at the same moment, collapsing this into a wider sense of victim-hood (see Keys et al, 2006). The fisherfolk, villagers, small-scale entrepreneurs, husbands and wives we talked to were not just a collection of poor and not-so-poor, trammelled as much by the operation of the international political economy as by the freak waves that washed ashore on the morning of the 26th December.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…. it becomes a political problem as well' (see Keys et al, 2006 for a political economy interpretation of the tsunami). Natural events may appear cruelly random but their impacts, whom they affect and how, the degree of resilience that societies and individuals exhibit, and the trajectories of recovery, are far from random.…”

Section: Disaster Risk and Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Grounding a natural disaster: Thailand and the 2004 tsunami

Rigg¹,

Grundy‐Warr²,

Law³

et al. 2008

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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Drawing on field work in Southern Thailand undertaken in July 2005, the study illuminates the complex and contingent way in which the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 affected communities, households and individuals. The paper problematises the indiscriminate/ discriminate patterning of impact and recovery and also makes a case for a delocalised and transnational approach to understanding the impacts of the wave. Using the notion of 'tsunami footprints' and drawing on qualitative interviews, the paper proposes that impacts need to be seen in the context of the spatially dispersed networks of association that characterise the Thai space economy and Thai society. Drawing on work on poverty dynamics, the paper also explores three explanatory disjunctures in recovery transitions: the disjuncture between the pre-tsunami context and the post-tsunami situation; the disjuncture between structure and agency; and the disjuncture between the appearance of progressive and gradual change in societies and the lived reality of turbulence.

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The Political Economy of a Natural Disaster: The Boxing Day Tsunami, 2004

Cited by 26 publications

References 6 publications

Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs, unveiling relations of power

Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs, unveiling relations of power

Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations

Grounding a natural disaster: Thailand and the 2004 tsunami

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