1 / 19

Reconstruction Sites

Reconstruction Sites. Lisa Smirl Centre for International Studies & Emmanuel College. As disasters become more frequent, reconstruction becomes an increasingly prominent aspect of the international development discourse

mireya
Download Presentation

Reconstruction Sites

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Reconstruction Sites Lisa Smirl Centre for International Studies & Emmanuel College

  2. As disasters become more frequent, reconstruction becomes an increasingly prominent aspect of the international development discourse And, I argue, is an important part of the OECD countries constructing themselves as ethical international actors, with not only a responsibility but a right to intervention. Observations

  3. Research: • Looking at how the international community approaches the reconstruction of large scale disasters. • What can a spatial lens tell us about these sites? : • Locally - Is reconstruction successful when judged against it’s own criteria for success? • Globally - What is the impact on the discourse of north-south relations

  4. Hypothesis: • There are technologies of reconstruction that can be seen across reconstruction sites • These technologies are the result of spatial practices of the international community (the way in which the conduct, house, transport themselves in the reconstruction sites) • Result of a particular approach to reconstruction (competitive) which fragments the reconstructive project. • These technologies are remarkably similar across reconstruction sites

  5. Two levels of investigation: A - Local circumstance • What is built • How is it used

  6. Two levels of investigation: A - Local circumstance • What is built • How is it used B - Western influence • International processes & technologies of reconstruction • Physical presence of international in reconstruction zones

  7. Case Studies Primary: South East Asian Tsunami • Aceh (Banda Aceh & Meulaboh) • South Sri Lanka Selected: • Katrina (on housing) • Kosovo, Rwanda, BiH (on international compounds) • Various UN missions (exchange of reconstruction expertise)

  8. Local circumstances Idea of the reconstruction of the house • Why does the concept of the house, or home occupy the central aspect of the reconstruction discourse? • Concept of the Western reconstruction of the home • Issues surrounding the design, construction, use of the house • No accountability, and very little follow through.

  9. Fig.1 - Habitat for Humanity house design, Aceh

  10. Why? A) Partly attributable to the dynamics/processes of the international humanitarian approach: • Competition amongst NGOs • Normative associations • Short attention span of international viewers

  11. Why…cont’d B) Partly attributable to the physical situation of Western humanitarian workers in these situations: • In specific sites • As a global flow

  12. Compounding Crisis? In country situation of humanitarian & development workers • live and work within compounds • Travel in land rovers • Set up parallel delivery systems and transport networks

  13. Impacts of Western Presence • Perpetuation of a neo-colonial power relationship (viz. Duffield) • But am also interested in how the observed spatial inequalities impact the way in which reconstruction takes place • On the ground • At the level of international discourse

  14. Impact of Western Presence - Transnational • Within discourses of globalization theory there was much talk about transnational flows, the creation of a global identity (viz. Sassen) • Interested in how these grounded, enclosed experiences of the international development are transferred between reconstruction sites

  15. When we look at the way in which the reconstruction sites/efforts are discussed and represented with the practitioners discourse, it is common to group together both natural and political reconstructive sites • Acknowledging that CHUs include both natural & political dimensions, (e.g. Aceh, Sri Lanka, Sudan) it is still important to understand the development and transmission of reconstructive expertise across zones

  16. FIN.

More Related