When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, the category 3 storm’s surge caused nearly every municipal levee to break leaving 80% of the city flooded. In the…
Abstract
Purpose
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, the category 3 storm’s surge caused nearly every municipal levee to break leaving 80% of the city flooded. In the aftermath of the storm, television images of stranded residents, drowned hospital patients, looted stores, and chaos in designated shelters ignited an ethical debate over the role of race and class in modern America. As debates raged over how, or whether, to rebuild New Orleans, the idea of cultural sustainability underlies these discussions.
Design/methodology
Drawing on the largest diaspora since the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s, I begin by examining the concept of a civil society through Habermas’ (1994) utopian model of an ideal speech community. I extend Habermas’ idea to the environmental justice movement with an emphasis on the utilitarian approach. This includes my discussion of Hinman’s (1998) pluralistic view of moral ethics within a multicultural society coupled with Bullard’s (1993, 1994, 2008) applied environmental social justice in low-income racial minority neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by hazardous waste sites. Then, I expand this argument into the concept of cultural sustainability in which the concept of a free speech community and environmental justice are embedded.
Findings
Drawing on a case study of New Orleans, I examine how the city’s divided racial and class cultures provide major challenges to applying cultural sustainability practices in the post-Katrina rebuilding process.
Originality
This chapter uses a case study to explore the application of cultural sustainability practices highlighting the concepts implicit roots in Habermas’ utopian free speech community and underlying ties to the environmental justice movement.
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Purpose – Everyday human behavior is complicated and difficult to understand. When a disaster event is factored in, human behavior becomes even more complicated. Much like during…
Abstract
Purpose – Everyday human behavior is complicated and difficult to understand. When a disaster event is factored in, human behavior becomes even more complicated. Much like during routine times where resources are unequally distributed, so too are the impacts of a disaster. That is, people are more and less vulnerable to disaster and the damage a disaster inflicts has more to do with the social context (type of housing, level of urbanization, average level of education) of the impacted community. Part of the social context of a community that is not considered part of vulnerability analysis is rates of crime. Indeed, there is reliable evidence that demonstrates lawlessness and crime do not happen after “typical” disasters (e.g., see Quarantelli, 2005). However, we are beginning to see antisocial or conflict behavior, such as looting, price gouging, and violence, especially in more recent events like Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina.
Design/methodology/approach – Using the case studies of Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina, this chapter applies conflict and structural strain theories to lawlessness post-disaster, and makes call to consider these theories as part of disaster studies.
Findings – There are emerging patterns of lawlessness that are happening after contemporary disaster events.
Value of the paper – Considerable research posits that people, for the most part, act in consensus following a typical disaster event. However, current events like Hurricane Katrina are by no means typical, and, in fact, trigger new typologies for understanding acute crisis events. These new events are showing us that what have traditionally been called disaster myths may be becoming more of a reality than we once thought. Therefore, criminology of disaster is important to develop further. Little research does this, outside of Harper and Frailing (2010).
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Abstract
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This preliminary survey begins to probe a few purposes and practices of “Earth System Science” to rethink the ways in which Nature is “taken into account” by this new…
Abstract
This preliminary survey begins to probe a few purposes and practices of “Earth System Science” to rethink the ways in which Nature is “taken into account” by this new power/knowledge formation. The workings of “environmentality,” or green governmentality (Luke, 1999c), and the dispositions of environmental accountancy regimes depend increasingly on the development and deployment of such reconceptualized interdisciplinary sciences (Briden & Downing, 2002). These practices have gained much more cohesion as a technoscience network since 2001 Amsterdam Conference on Global Climate Change Open Science. Due to its brevity, this study is neither an exhaustive history nor an extensive sociology of either Earth System Science or the new post-2001 Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP), which acquired new legitimacy during and after this professional-technical congress. Instead this critique reexamines these disciplinary developments to explore the curious condition of their rapid assembly and gradual acceptance as credible technoscience formations. This reevaluation allows one, at the same time, to speculate about the emergent interests hoping to gain hold over such power/knowledge programs for managing security, territory, and population on a planetary scale (Burchell, Gordon, & Miller, 1991; Foucault, 1991c, pp. 87–104).
Randall B. Bunker and William F. Shughart
This research quantifies the economic impact of regional tax policy incentives included in the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005.
Abstract
Purpose
This research quantifies the economic impact of regional tax policy incentives included in the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilized linear mixed-effects modeling and multiple regression procedures with a matched sample panel dataset from 2002 through 2008 containing real-world county-level economic data.
Findings
The results indicated that the regional tax incentives provided by the GO Zone Act did not generate significant increases in key economic indicators included in this study. These tax incentives were intended to spur economic recovery, but based on research findings, they do not appear to have had the impact desired by Congress.
Research limitations/implications
Archival empirical data for the affected region make this study possible but also limit the ability to generalize these results to other regions. In addition, empirical research utilizing real-world data can be prone to internal validity issues that exist due to lack of environmental controls and other possible causal factors.
Originality/value
This research adds to the existing literature by using real-world county-level economic indicators to test the impact of tax policy investment incentives at the regional level and minimizes some of the issues addressed by prior empirical research and provides evidence on the effectiveness of tax policy investment incentives at the regional level.
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Shari R. Veil and Rebekah A. Husted
This study aims to use the now‐classic case study of American Red Cross's response to Hurricane Katrina to demonstrate the utility of the best practices in risk and crisis…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use the now‐classic case study of American Red Cross's response to Hurricane Katrina to demonstrate the utility of the best practices in risk and crisis communication as an assessment tool.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative case study methodology is used to provide a thick description of the case based on media analysis and internal and external evaluations. The best practices in risk and crisis communication are then used to assess Red Cross's response efforts.
Findings
This study provides contextual support for the best practices in risk and crisis communication and demonstrates their usefulness in post‐crisis assessment. Lessons learned specific to the case outline the importance of: maintaining flexibility in the crisis plan; developing a crisis communication protocol with partners; considering the affects of response procedures on the emotional and psychological health of crisis victims; and establishing connections with diverse populations and the communities in which the organization works.
Practical implications
As an assessment tool in the post‐crisis stage, the best practices provide an outline for organizations to question whether their planning was sufficient and their strategies and responses met the needs of their stakeholders.
Originality/value
This study provides reason for continuing to develop, study, and apply best practices in risk and crisis communication across organizations and industries. By using the best practices as an assessment tool post‐crisis, organizations can look at each specific practice through the lens of the crisis to stimulate organizational learning.
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This action research study reports on an important unit of study having evidence of success. The paper discusses how students in a social studies classroom setting may be…
Abstract
This action research study reports on an important unit of study having evidence of success. The paper discusses how students in a social studies classroom setting may be encouraged to develop and display empathy for individuals who are impacted by hurricane disasters. It uses aspects of the documentary “When the Levees Broke” in collaboration with the “Teaching the Levees Module” and several technology based classroom resources. The findings indicate that as students contextualized the impact of Hurricane Katrina and similar natural disasters on human populations they begin to develop and display empathy. The students who were involved in this investigation also were able to apply principles of social justice which facilitated reflective thinking as they used hindsight to analyze and discuss the context of this natural disaster