Author: Sunita Reddy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811301824
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343
Book Description
Through the lens of the Asian tsunami, this book problematizes concepts that are normally taken for granted in disaster discourse, including relief, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation. The unprecedented flow of humanitarian aid after the Asian tsunami, though well-intentioned, showed adverse effects and unintended consequences in the lives of people in the communities across nations. Aid led not only to widespread relief and recovery but also to an exacerbation of old forms of inequities and the creation of new ones arising from the prioritization, distribution and management of aid. This, in turn, led to the incongruity between the needs and expectations of the affected and the agendas of aid agencies and their various intermediaries. This book examines the long-term consequences of post-disaster aid by posing the following questions: What has the aid been expended on? Where has the aid primarily been expended, and how? And what were the unintended consequences of post-disaster aid for the communities? This topical volume is of interest to social scientists, human rights and law researchers and environmental scientists interested in disaster studies.
The Asian Tsunami and Post-Disaster Aid
Author: Sunita Reddy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811301824
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343
Book Description
Through the lens of the Asian tsunami, this book problematizes concepts that are normally taken for granted in disaster discourse, including relief, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation. The unprecedented flow of humanitarian aid after the Asian tsunami, though well-intentioned, showed adverse effects and unintended consequences in the lives of people in the communities across nations. Aid led not only to widespread relief and recovery but also to an exacerbation of old forms of inequities and the creation of new ones arising from the prioritization, distribution and management of aid. This, in turn, led to the incongruity between the needs and expectations of the affected and the agendas of aid agencies and their various intermediaries. This book examines the long-term consequences of post-disaster aid by posing the following questions: What has the aid been expended on? Where has the aid primarily been expended, and how? And what were the unintended consequences of post-disaster aid for the communities? This topical volume is of interest to social scientists, human rights and law researchers and environmental scientists interested in disaster studies.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811301824
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343
Book Description
Through the lens of the Asian tsunami, this book problematizes concepts that are normally taken for granted in disaster discourse, including relief, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation. The unprecedented flow of humanitarian aid after the Asian tsunami, though well-intentioned, showed adverse effects and unintended consequences in the lives of people in the communities across nations. Aid led not only to widespread relief and recovery but also to an exacerbation of old forms of inequities and the creation of new ones arising from the prioritization, distribution and management of aid. This, in turn, led to the incongruity between the needs and expectations of the affected and the agendas of aid agencies and their various intermediaries. This book examines the long-term consequences of post-disaster aid by posing the following questions: What has the aid been expended on? Where has the aid primarily been expended, and how? And what were the unintended consequences of post-disaster aid for the communities? This topical volume is of interest to social scientists, human rights and law researchers and environmental scientists interested in disaster studies.
The Asian Tsunami
Author: S. K. Jayasuriya
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849806837
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
The 2004 Asian tsunami was the greatest natural disaster in recent times. Almost 230,000 people died. In response, governments in Asia and the broader international community announced large aid programs. The resulting assistance effort was one of the largest humanitarian programs ever organised in the developing world. This book discusses the lessons of the aid effort for disaster protection policy in developing countries.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849806837
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
The 2004 Asian tsunami was the greatest natural disaster in recent times. Almost 230,000 people died. In response, governments in Asia and the broader international community announced large aid programs. The resulting assistance effort was one of the largest humanitarian programs ever organised in the developing world. This book discusses the lessons of the aid effort for disaster protection policy in developing countries.
Dual Disasters
Author: Jennifer Hyndman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565493353
Category : Aceh (Indonesia)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The 2004 tsunami was massive in every respect: the earthquake that preceded it was one of the largest ever recorded, the number of people killed or displaced is estimated at well over a million, and the international community donated billions of dollars to the relief effort. In some cases the tsunami struck regions already embroiled in other kinds of catastrophes – violent conflict and poverty. The tsunami’s presence not only wreaked havoc as a natural disaster, but it left an enduring mark on the political dynamics and power struggles of these places. Dual Disasters describes what happens when man-made and natural disasters meet. Focusing specifically on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, countries that had complex emergencies long before the tsunami arrived, Hyndman shows how the storm’s arrival shifted the goals of international aid, altered relations between and within states and accelerated or slowed peacebuilding efforts. With updated comments on the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the book guides readers deftly through the multifaceted forces at work in modern humanitarian disasters.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781565493353
Category : Aceh (Indonesia)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The 2004 tsunami was massive in every respect: the earthquake that preceded it was one of the largest ever recorded, the number of people killed or displaced is estimated at well over a million, and the international community donated billions of dollars to the relief effort. In some cases the tsunami struck regions already embroiled in other kinds of catastrophes – violent conflict and poverty. The tsunami’s presence not only wreaked havoc as a natural disaster, but it left an enduring mark on the political dynamics and power struggles of these places. Dual Disasters describes what happens when man-made and natural disasters meet. Focusing specifically on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, countries that had complex emergencies long before the tsunami arrived, Hyndman shows how the storm’s arrival shifted the goals of international aid, altered relations between and within states and accelerated or slowed peacebuilding efforts. With updated comments on the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the book guides readers deftly through the multifaceted forces at work in modern humanitarian disasters.
Disaster Relief Aid
Author: Bimal Kanti Paul
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319772821
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Disaster Relief Aid: Changes and Challenges provides a comprehensive analysis of disaster relief efforts undertaken globally during the last several decades, and examines the changes and challenges that have emerged over time. The book evaluates the current state of disaster relief and discusses how it may be improved. The author examines salient features of disaster relief operations and provides an overview of the development of global humanitarian assistance programs. The book also explores how disaster aid is channelled from non-affected areas to affected areas. Using five major natural and man-made disasters as case studies, the book analyses the nature and extent of emergency relief efforts undertaken for each. The final chapter covers the post-disaster convergence phenomenon; outlines the major challenges of international disaster relief operation and finally, posits recommendations on how to improve future disaster relief efforts. This is an essential interdisciplinary text on disaster response for both undergraduate and graduate students as well as an invaluable resource for disaster researchers, managers, and numerous international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319772821
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Disaster Relief Aid: Changes and Challenges provides a comprehensive analysis of disaster relief efforts undertaken globally during the last several decades, and examines the changes and challenges that have emerged over time. The book evaluates the current state of disaster relief and discusses how it may be improved. The author examines salient features of disaster relief operations and provides an overview of the development of global humanitarian assistance programs. The book also explores how disaster aid is channelled from non-affected areas to affected areas. Using five major natural and man-made disasters as case studies, the book analyses the nature and extent of emergency relief efforts undertaken for each. The final chapter covers the post-disaster convergence phenomenon; outlines the major challenges of international disaster relief operation and finally, posits recommendations on how to improve future disaster relief efforts. This is an essential interdisciplinary text on disaster response for both undergraduate and graduate students as well as an invaluable resource for disaster researchers, managers, and numerous international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies.
After the Tsunami
Author: Annemarie Samuels
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824878264
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused immense destruction and over 170,000 deaths in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The disaster spurred large-scale social and political changes in Aceh, including the intensified implementation of shari‘a law and an end to the long separatist conflict. After the Tsunami explores Acehnese survivors’ experiences of the deadly waves and the subsequent reconstruction process through the stories they tell about the disaster. Narratives, author Annemarie Samuels argues, are both a window onto the process of remaking everyday life and an essential component of it. Building on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Samuels shows how the everyday work of recovery is indispensable for any large-scale reconstruction effort to succeed. Recovery is an ambiguous process in which grief remains as life goes on, where optimism and disappointment, remembering and forgetting, structural poverty and the rhetoric of success are often intertwined in individual and social worlds. Such paradoxes are key and form a thread through the five chapters of the book. Addressing post-disaster reconstruction from the survivors’ perspectives opens up space for criticism of post-disaster governance without reducing the discussion of recovery to top-down interventions. Individual histories, emotions, creativity, and ways of being in the world, the author argues, inform the remaking of worlds as much as social, political, and cultural transformations do. After the Tsunami is a provocative and highly significant contribution to studies of humanitarian aid and disaster, psychological anthropology, narrative studies, and scholarly studies of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Its elegant style, pointed theorizing, and moving ethnographic descriptions will draw readers into Acehnese lifeworlds and politics. Its narratives attest to Acehnese ways of living with loss, within and across a history of colonial and postcolonial violence and suffering and a present of political uncertainty and hope.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824878264
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused immense destruction and over 170,000 deaths in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The disaster spurred large-scale social and political changes in Aceh, including the intensified implementation of shari‘a law and an end to the long separatist conflict. After the Tsunami explores Acehnese survivors’ experiences of the deadly waves and the subsequent reconstruction process through the stories they tell about the disaster. Narratives, author Annemarie Samuels argues, are both a window onto the process of remaking everyday life and an essential component of it. Building on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Samuels shows how the everyday work of recovery is indispensable for any large-scale reconstruction effort to succeed. Recovery is an ambiguous process in which grief remains as life goes on, where optimism and disappointment, remembering and forgetting, structural poverty and the rhetoric of success are often intertwined in individual and social worlds. Such paradoxes are key and form a thread through the five chapters of the book. Addressing post-disaster reconstruction from the survivors’ perspectives opens up space for criticism of post-disaster governance without reducing the discussion of recovery to top-down interventions. Individual histories, emotions, creativity, and ways of being in the world, the author argues, inform the remaking of worlds as much as social, political, and cultural transformations do. After the Tsunami is a provocative and highly significant contribution to studies of humanitarian aid and disaster, psychological anthropology, narrative studies, and scholarly studies of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Its elegant style, pointed theorizing, and moving ethnographic descriptions will draw readers into Acehnese lifeworlds and politics. Its narratives attest to Acehnese ways of living with loss, within and across a history of colonial and postcolonial violence and suffering and a present of political uncertainty and hope.
Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia
Author: Marjaana Jauhola
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135044570
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
This book offers a critical analysis of gender mainstreaming initiatives in the post-tsunami context in Indonesia. Aiming to challenge the terms of the debate in gender mainstreaming and disaster reconstruction efforts, Jauhola offers an important contribution for the discussion of what ‘feminisms and disasters’ could be. The work provides an in-depth analysis of three governmental practices of gender mainstreaming: the use of the concept pair sex/gender; the use of gender analysis and the use of project management tools and local subversion that challenges the potential normative violence of gender mainstreaming. Providing feminist intersectional reading of gender mainstreaming the book aims to illustrate that this framework does not lack political alternatives, but rather, it offers an alternative focus for feminism and for the re-conceptualisation of ‘political’, and provides tools for practitioners of aid aiming to come to grips with the complexity of gender equality policy agenda and its potential violent social consequences in global politics. Drawing on extensive field research in Aceh, this text is one of the first book length studies, and thus provides a significant addition to Indonesian literatures on intersectional analysis of gender, religion, heteronormativity, and feminist subversive practice. It is a vital resource for those interested in understanding global interconnections of localised disaster and conflict reconstruction.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135044570
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
This book offers a critical analysis of gender mainstreaming initiatives in the post-tsunami context in Indonesia. Aiming to challenge the terms of the debate in gender mainstreaming and disaster reconstruction efforts, Jauhola offers an important contribution for the discussion of what ‘feminisms and disasters’ could be. The work provides an in-depth analysis of three governmental practices of gender mainstreaming: the use of the concept pair sex/gender; the use of gender analysis and the use of project management tools and local subversion that challenges the potential normative violence of gender mainstreaming. Providing feminist intersectional reading of gender mainstreaming the book aims to illustrate that this framework does not lack political alternatives, but rather, it offers an alternative focus for feminism and for the re-conceptualisation of ‘political’, and provides tools for practitioners of aid aiming to come to grips with the complexity of gender equality policy agenda and its potential violent social consequences in global politics. Drawing on extensive field research in Aceh, this text is one of the first book length studies, and thus provides a significant addition to Indonesian literatures on intersectional analysis of gender, religion, heteronormativity, and feminist subversive practice. It is a vital resource for those interested in understanding global interconnections of localised disaster and conflict reconstruction.
Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice
Author: Ngoh Tiong Tan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 078903235X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice presents an inside look at the complicated nature of disaster preparedness and how it relates to poverty, trauma, community development, and service delivery systems. Health, human services, and mental health professionals from countries still reeling from the devastations of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 reflect on the challenges facing survivors, the effects of the disaster, and interventions by the community and social work professionals. This unique book offers real-life accounts of practice models and the experiences of recovery from natural and man-made events. When disaster strikes, social workers and other human service professionals not only are the first responders, they are also called upon to help victims with the effects of trauma and displacement, providing social and emotional support in the recovery and rebuilding of families and communities. Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice explores social interventions used in relief efforts to aid hundreds of thousands of people who were left at risk and in need in affected areas of South Asia and East Africa, including Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, and Indonesia. Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice examines: mental health practice in emergency response the connections between disability and disaster social and physical conditions after the tsunami of 2004 state and civil society responses in India service delivery frameworks the effective use of volunteers training programs for social workers and recovery workers the economic, social, and psychological impacts on survivors and much more Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice is an invaluable aid for students, practice professionals, and educators in health and human services, as well as anyone working in international aid and disaster relief.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 078903235X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice presents an inside look at the complicated nature of disaster preparedness and how it relates to poverty, trauma, community development, and service delivery systems. Health, human services, and mental health professionals from countries still reeling from the devastations of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 reflect on the challenges facing survivors, the effects of the disaster, and interventions by the community and social work professionals. This unique book offers real-life accounts of practice models and the experiences of recovery from natural and man-made events. When disaster strikes, social workers and other human service professionals not only are the first responders, they are also called upon to help victims with the effects of trauma and displacement, providing social and emotional support in the recovery and rebuilding of families and communities. Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice explores social interventions used in relief efforts to aid hundreds of thousands of people who were left at risk and in need in affected areas of South Asia and East Africa, including Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, and Indonesia. Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice examines: mental health practice in emergency response the connections between disability and disaster social and physical conditions after the tsunami of 2004 state and civil society responses in India service delivery frameworks the effective use of volunteers training programs for social workers and recovery workers the economic, social, and psychological impacts on survivors and much more Asian Tsunami and Social Work Practice is an invaluable aid for students, practice professionals, and educators in health and human services, as well as anyone working in international aid and disaster relief.
Building Resilience
Author: Daniel P. Aldrich
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226012891
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
The factor that makes some communities rebound quickly from disasters while others fall apart: “A fascinating book on an important topic.”—E.L. Hirsch, in Choice Each year, natural disasters threaten the strength and stability of communities worldwide. Yet responses to the challenges of recovery vary greatly and in ways that aren’t explained by the magnitude of the catastrophe or the amount of aid provided by national governments or the international community. The difference between resilience and disrepair, as Daniel P. Aldrich shows, lies in the depth of communities’ social capital. Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich examines the post-disaster responses of four distinct communities—Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake, Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina—and finds that those with robust social networks were better able to coordinate recovery. In addition to quickly disseminating information and financial and physical assistance, communities with an abundance of social capital were able to minimize the migration of people and valuable resources out of the area. With governments increasingly overstretched and natural disasters likely to increase in frequency and intensity, a thorough understanding of what contributes to efficient reconstruction is more important than ever. Building Resilience underscores a critical component of an effective response.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226012891
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
The factor that makes some communities rebound quickly from disasters while others fall apart: “A fascinating book on an important topic.”—E.L. Hirsch, in Choice Each year, natural disasters threaten the strength and stability of communities worldwide. Yet responses to the challenges of recovery vary greatly and in ways that aren’t explained by the magnitude of the catastrophe or the amount of aid provided by national governments or the international community. The difference between resilience and disrepair, as Daniel P. Aldrich shows, lies in the depth of communities’ social capital. Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich examines the post-disaster responses of four distinct communities—Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake, Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina—and finds that those with robust social networks were better able to coordinate recovery. In addition to quickly disseminating information and financial and physical assistance, communities with an abundance of social capital were able to minimize the migration of people and valuable resources out of the area. With governments increasingly overstretched and natural disasters likely to increase in frequency and intensity, a thorough understanding of what contributes to efficient reconstruction is more important than ever. Building Resilience underscores a critical component of an effective response.
The Indian Ocean Tsunami
Author: Pradyumna Prasad Karan
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813126525
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
December 2004, a tsunami swept over the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other South Asian countries, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and many more without the resources to rebuild their lives. With casualties as far away as Africa, the aftermath was overwhelming: ships could be spotted miles inland; cars floated in the ocean; legions of the unidentified deadùan estimated 225,000ùwere buried in mass graves; relief organizations struggled to reach rural areas and provide adequate aid to survivors. The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Global Response to a Natural Disaster is the first comprehensive assessment of the environmental, social, and economic costs of this tragedy. Soon after the tsunami, an international team of geographers, geologists, anthropologists, and political scientists traveled to the most damaged areas to observe and document the tsunami's impact. The Indian Ocean Tsunami draws on data collected by this team. Editors Pradyumna P. Karan and Shanmugam P. Subbiah, along with contributors from multiple disciplines, examine numerous issues that arose in the aftermath of the tsunami, such as inequities in response efforts, unequal distribution of disaster relief aid, and relocation and housing problems. The Indian Ocean Tsunami is organized into several sections, the first of which deals with the ecological destruction of the tsunami. It includes case studies and photographs of the damage in Japan, Indonesia, South India, and other areas. The second section analyzes the economic and social aspects of the aid responses, specifically discussing the role of NGOs in tsunami relief, the strengths and weaknesses of the reconstruction process, and the lessons the tsunami offers to those who are responsible for dealing with future disasters. In the tsunami's aftermath, the inadequacies of governmental and privately funded aid and the challenge of rehabilitating devastated ecosystems quickly became apparent. With this volume, Karan and Suhbiah illuminate the need for the development of efficient, socially and environmentally sustainable practices to cope with environmental disasters. They suggest that education about the ongoing process of recovery will mitigate the effects of future natural disasters. Including maps, photographs, and statistical analyses, The Indian Ocean Tsunami is a clear and definitive evaluation of the tsunami's impact and the world's response to it.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813126525
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
December 2004, a tsunami swept over the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other South Asian countries, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and many more without the resources to rebuild their lives. With casualties as far away as Africa, the aftermath was overwhelming: ships could be spotted miles inland; cars floated in the ocean; legions of the unidentified deadùan estimated 225,000ùwere buried in mass graves; relief organizations struggled to reach rural areas and provide adequate aid to survivors. The Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Global Response to a Natural Disaster is the first comprehensive assessment of the environmental, social, and economic costs of this tragedy. Soon after the tsunami, an international team of geographers, geologists, anthropologists, and political scientists traveled to the most damaged areas to observe and document the tsunami's impact. The Indian Ocean Tsunami draws on data collected by this team. Editors Pradyumna P. Karan and Shanmugam P. Subbiah, along with contributors from multiple disciplines, examine numerous issues that arose in the aftermath of the tsunami, such as inequities in response efforts, unequal distribution of disaster relief aid, and relocation and housing problems. The Indian Ocean Tsunami is organized into several sections, the first of which deals with the ecological destruction of the tsunami. It includes case studies and photographs of the damage in Japan, Indonesia, South India, and other areas. The second section analyzes the economic and social aspects of the aid responses, specifically discussing the role of NGOs in tsunami relief, the strengths and weaknesses of the reconstruction process, and the lessons the tsunami offers to those who are responsible for dealing with future disasters. In the tsunami's aftermath, the inadequacies of governmental and privately funded aid and the challenge of rehabilitating devastated ecosystems quickly became apparent. With this volume, Karan and Suhbiah illuminate the need for the development of efficient, socially and environmentally sustainable practices to cope with environmental disasters. They suggest that education about the ongoing process of recovery will mitigate the effects of future natural disasters. Including maps, photographs, and statistical analyses, The Indian Ocean Tsunami is a clear and definitive evaluation of the tsunami's impact and the world's response to it.
Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka
Author: Dennis B. McGilvray
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135150621
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which devastated 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed an estimated 35,000 people, was remarkable both for the magnitude of the disaster and for the unprecedented scale of the relief and recovery operations mounted by national and international agencies. The reconstruction process was soon hampered by political patronage, by the competing efforts of hundreds of foreign humanitarian organizations, and by the ongoing civil war. The book is framed within this larger political and social context, offering descriptions and comparisons between two regions (southwest vs. eastern coast) and four ethnic communities (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and Burghers) to illustrate how disaster relief unfolded in a culturally pluralistic political landscape. Approaching the issue from four disciplinary perspectives - anthropology, demography, political science, and disaster studies - chapters by experts in the field analyse regional and ethnic patterns of post-tsunami reconstruction according to different sectors of Sri Lankan society. Demonstrating the key importance of comprehending the local cultural contexts of disaster recovery processes, the book is a timely and useful contribution to the existing literature.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135150621
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
Book Description
The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which devastated 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed an estimated 35,000 people, was remarkable both for the magnitude of the disaster and for the unprecedented scale of the relief and recovery operations mounted by national and international agencies. The reconstruction process was soon hampered by political patronage, by the competing efforts of hundreds of foreign humanitarian organizations, and by the ongoing civil war. The book is framed within this larger political and social context, offering descriptions and comparisons between two regions (southwest vs. eastern coast) and four ethnic communities (Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and Burghers) to illustrate how disaster relief unfolded in a culturally pluralistic political landscape. Approaching the issue from four disciplinary perspectives - anthropology, demography, political science, and disaster studies - chapters by experts in the field analyse regional and ethnic patterns of post-tsunami reconstruction according to different sectors of Sri Lankan society. Demonstrating the key importance of comprehending the local cultural contexts of disaster recovery processes, the book is a timely and useful contribution to the existing literature.