Understanding the Materiality of Disaster Injustice in Post-disaster Housing Reconstruction

Abstract

This article contributes to disaster justice literature by analyzing the materialities of disaster injustice in an island community exposed to multiple hazards. Harnessing methods at the junctures of anthropology and architecture, this article uses the concept of “material register” to examine how injustice is articulated in housing reconstruction. The study identifies three material registers that operate within this particular disaster context: housing as a roof overhead, housing as lifeworld, and housing as private responsibility. These material registers highlight how post-disaster housing reconstruction is embedded in particular social, economic, and political realities.

KEYWORDS: DISASTER JUSTICE • POST-DISASTER HOUSING RECONSTRUCTION • DISASTER RISK REDUCTION • MATERIAL CULTURE • FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT