Citation

Imperiale AJ, Vanclay F. Disasters 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12431

PMID

31981235

Abstract

We reflect on what happened in L'Aquila, Italy, in the recovery operations following the 6 April 2009 earthquake. Previous critiques have focused on the actions of the Italian government and Department of Civil Protection, with little research on the role of local authorities. We shed light on how local authorities used emergency powers, command-and-control, and top-down planning to manage disaster rubble, implement safety measures, and allocate temporary accommodation. We discuss how these arrangements constituted the mechanism by which disaster capitalism took hold at local and national levels. We describe how this mechanism violated human rights, created environmental and social impacts, hindered local communities from learning, transforming, and building resilience, and facilitated rent-seeking, elite capture, organised crime infiltration and disaster capitalism. To make the Disaster Risk Reduction and resilience paradigm more effective, a shift from centralised civil protection to de-centralised, inclusive community empowerment systems is needed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

community resilience; disaster capitalism; disaster governance; disaster management; disaster risk reduction; social dimensions of disaster; sociology of disasters