The neoliberal deluge : Hurricane Katrina, late capitalism, and the remaking of New Orleans

Katrina was not just a hurricane. The death, destruction, and misery wreaked on New Orleans cannot be blamed on nature’s fury alone. This volume of essays locates the root causes of the 2005 disaster squarely in neoliberal restructuring and examines how pro-market reforms are reshaping life, politics, economy, and the built environment in New Orleans. The authors—a diverse group writing from the disciplines of sociology, political science, education, public policy, and media theory—argue that human agency and public policy choices were more at fault for the devastation and mass suffering experienced along the Gulf Coast than were sheer forces of nature. The harrowing images of flattened homes, citizens stranded on rooftops, patients dying in makeshift hospitals, and dead bodies floating in floodwaters exposed the moral and political contradictions of neoliberalism—the ideological rejection of the planner state and the active promotion of a new order of market rule. Many of these essays offer critical insights on the saga of postdisaster reconstruction. Challenging triumphal narratives of civic resiliency and universal recovery, the authors bring to the fore pitched battles over labor rights, gender and racial justice, gentrification, the development of city master plans, the demolition of public housing, policing, the privatization of public schools, and roiling tensions between tourism-based economic growth and neighborhood interests. The contributors also expand and deepen more conventional critiques of “disaster capitalism” to consider how the corporate mobilization of philanthropy and public good will are remaking New Orleans in profound and pernicious ways. Contributors: Barbara L. Allen, Virginia Polytechnic U; John Arena, CUNY College of Staten Island; Adrienne Dixson, Ohio State U; Eric Ishiwata, Colorado State U; Avis Jones-Deweever, National Council of Negro Women; Chad Lavin, Virginia Polytechnic U; Paul Passavant, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Linda Robertson, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Chris Russill, Carleton U; Kanchana Ruwanpura, U of Southampton; Nicole Trujillo-Pagán, Wayne State U; Geoffrey Whitehall, Acadia U. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Contents 6 Preface: “Obama’s Katrina” 8 Introduction: The Neoliberal Deluge 18 Part I. Governance 52 1. From Tipping Point to Meta-Crisis: Management, Media, and Hurricane Katrina 54 2. “We Are Seeing People We Didn’t Know Exist”: Katrina and the Neoliberal Erasure of Race 83 3. Making Citizens in Magnaville: Katrina Refugees and Neoliberal Self-Governance 111 Part II. Urbanity 136 4. Mega-Events, the Superdome, and the Return of the Repressed in New Orleans 138 5. Whose Choice? A Critical Race Perspective on Charter Schools 181 6. Black and White, Unite and Fight? Identity Politics and New Orleans’s Post-Katrina Public Housing Movement 203 Part III. Planning 236 7. Charming Accommodations: Progressive Urbanism Meets Privatization in Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation 238 8. Laboratorization and the “Green” Rebuilding of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward 276 9. Squandered Resources? Grounded Realities of Recovery in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka 296 Part IV. Inequality 318 10. How Shall We Remember New Orleans? Comparing News Coverage of Post-Katrina New Orleans and the 2008 Midwest Floods 320 11. The Forgotten Ones: Black Women in the Wake of Katrina 351 12. Hazardous Constructions: Mexican Immigrant Masculinity and the Rebuilding of New Orleans 378 Contributors 406 Index 410 A 410 B 412 C 414 D 419 E 421 F 423 G 424 H 426 I 428 J 429 K 430 L 431 M 434 N 437 O 441 P 442 Q 446 R 446 S 449 T 453 U 455 V 455 W 456 X 457 Y 457 Z 457 Introduction : The Neoliberal Deluge / Cedric Johnson -- From Tipping Point To Metacrises: Management, Media, And Hurricane Katrina / Chris Russill And Chad Lavin -- We Are Seeing People We Didn't Know Exist : Katrina And The Neoliberal Erasure Of Race / Eric Ishiwata -- Making Citizens In Magnaville : Katrina Refugees And Neoliberal Self-governance / Geoffrey Whitehall And Cedric Johnson -- Mega-events, The Superdome, And The Return Of The Repressed In New Orleans / Paul Passavant -- Whose Choice? A Critical Race Perspective On Charter Schools / Adrienne Dixson -- Black And White, Unite And Fight? Identity Politics And New Orleans's Post-katrina Public Housing Movement / John Arena -- Charming Accommodations: Progressive Urbanism Meets Privatization In Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation / Cedric Johnson -- Laboratorization And The Green Rebuilding Of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward / Barbara L. Allen -- Squandered Resources? Grounded Realities Of Recovery In Post-tsunami Sri Lanka / Kanchana Ruwanpura -- How Shall We Remember New Orleans? Comparing News Coverage Of Post- Katrina New Orleans And The 2008 Midwest Floods / Linda Robertson -- The Forgotten Ones: Black Women In The Wake Of Katrina / Avis Jones-deweever -- Hazardous Constructions: Mexican Immigrant Masculinity And The Rebuilding Of New Orleans / Nicole Trujillo-pagøn. Cedric Johnson, Editor. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This collection of twelve essays analyzes neoliberalism not as mere ideology, but as a really existing form of social organization, by focusing on the role neoliberalization had on the Hurricane Katrina disaster that struck New Orleans in 2005, though one essay also looks at the response to the SE Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka also in 2005. They do this because, argues editor Johnson (african american studies, U. Of Illinois, Chicago), cities have been a key target in neoliberal rollbacks. The book is organized into four thematic sections on governance, urbanity, planning, and inequality. Essays cover topics on disaster management, the erasure of race under neoliberalism, refugees and neoliberal self-governance, charter-schools, identity politics in the post-Katrina public housing movement, grassroots privatization, and sexual and racial inequality in rebuilding New Orleans. The contributors are mostly academics with backgrounds in sociology, political science, education, public policy, social geography, and media studies. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)