Chapter 9- “Problematizing Vulnerability: Unpacking gender, Intersectionality, and the normative disaster paradigm”, in Zakour, Mock and Kadetz (eds.), Creating Katrina, Rebuilding Resilience: Lessons from New Orleans on Vulnerability and Resiliency.
Author:
Kadetz, P. & Mock, N. B.
Date:
2018
Language:
English
Region:
North America
Country:
United States of America
Full Harvard Reference:
Kadetz, P. & Mock, N. B. (2018). Chapter 9- “Problematizing Vulnerability: Unpacking gender, Intersectionality, and the normative disaster paradigm”, in Zakour, Mock and Kadetz (eds.), Creating Katrina, Rebuilding Resilience: Lessons from New Orleans on Vulnerability and Resiliency, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann – Elsevier, pp. 215-230.
This chapter examines the intersections of gender, race, class and other vectors of marginalization, in the creation of postdisaster vulnerability in the context of the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It argues that an effective preparedness, response and recovery process should take into account the way social vulnerabilities are constructed prior to the disaster itself. Indeed, the policy dependence on essentialized notions of “disaster victims” combined to a neglect of social factors that have positioned people into different positions of power or marginality, exacerbates post-disaster vulnerability. Thus, an intersectional approach is required to review normative disaster interventions.