Empowerment and Social Justice in the Wake of Disasters

<p>This book taps into discussions about social vulnerability empowerment and resistance in relation to disaster relief and recovery. It disentangles tensions and dilemmas within post-disaster empowerment through a rich ethnographic narrative of the work of Occupy Sandy in Rockaway New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It details both a remarkable collaborative relief phase in which marginalized communities were empowered to take active part as well as a phase of conflict and resistance that came about as relief turned to long-term recovery. </p><p>This volume particularly aims to understand how community empowerment processes can breach pre-disaster marginalization in the aftermath of disasters. It connects with broader emancipatory literature on dilemmas involved in empowerment ‘from the outside’. In a future of potentially harsher climate related disasters and increased social vulnerability for certain communities this book contributes to a full and nuanced understanding of community empowerment and vulnerability reduction. </p><p>This book will be of interest to sociologists anthropologists geographers political scientists and urban studies researchers as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in disaster management disaster risk reduction social vulnerability community empowerment development studies local studies social work community-based work and emancipatory theory.</p>