Local disasters fall predictably on the least privileged and most depleted

Evidence

“Local disasters,” writes Wai Chee Dimock, “are the almost predictable side effects of global geopolitics. They are part of a larger distributive pattern—a pattern of unequal protection that Ulrich Beck calls the global ‘risk society’—with the risk falling on the least privileged, and being maximized at just those points where the resources have been most depleted.” Dimock is reflecting here on the impact on the poor of the prelude to and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, yet her words apply with equal force to contemporary Kenya and many other societies in the global South, where structures of slow violence sustain tinderbox conditions that cynical political elites can readily ignite at great cost to a society’s systemically disenfranchised. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 419

Categorization

• XREF: Ties Kai Erikson’s disaster-inequality reading to Ulrich Beck’s risk society and the eco-justice distributional strand. — connects to: Media amplify disasters near the West while ignoring equivalent harms in the global South — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 125; Post-disaster solidarity communities can reproduce existing structural inequality — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 45; Unequal disaster treatment by authorities re-marginalizes minority residents and dissolves unity — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 35
• QUESTION: Useful to chase: what exactly makes a disaster’s impact proportionate to resource depletion? The distributive mechanism is asserted but not detailed here.

Broader Connections

• Unequal disaster treatment by authorities re-marginalizes minority residents and dissolves unity #expands (0.85) — John Drury and Evangelos Ntontis, A SOCIAL IDENTITY MODEL OF COLLECTIVE…, 35
• Post-disaster solidarity communities can reproduce existing structural inequality #qualifies (0.80) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 45