Event

Urban Studies @McGill Seminar Series

Friday, October 2, 2015 12:00to13:00
rm. 420, Macdonald-Harrington Building, CA, QC, Montreal, 815 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, CA

City of Storms: Competing Disaster Imaginaries in Post-Hurricane New York

Presenter: David Wachsmuth

Assistant Professor, McGill School of Urban Planning

Several years after Hurricane Sandy devastated the New York region, major questions remain about the storm as an urban governance problem. Why was Occupy Sandy widely understood to be more effective at disaster aid than the government? How has Sandy changed the politics of urban sustainability in New York? To answer these questions I develop the concept of disaster imaginaries, connecting processes of meaning making with strategies of planning and collective action. First, I argue that two distinct disaster imaginaries led to very different definitions of crisis and strategies of emergency response: a “bounded” elite imaginary and an “open” everyday imaginary. Second, I argue that the existence of these disaster imaginaries helps explain why Occupy Sandy was widely seen as more successful at disaster aid than the government, and helps plug gaps in the more common organization-focused explanatory accounts. Third, I show that even after the immediate crisis passed, the two disaster imaginaries have been reproduced as opposing visions of how to build a more sustainable post-Sandy New York. I conclude by discussing the implications of the research for planning and urban studies. The findings are based on interviews, fieldwork and policy analysis conducted via Superstorm Research Lab, a collaborative research group I co-founded.

 

The Urban Studies @McGill Seminar Series invites speakers to present on a variety of ongoing research, projects, and issues related to urban studies. The seminars are hosted and organized by the McGill School of Urban Planning, with participation from the McGill School of Environment, and Department of Geography. The seminars typically run from noon to 1pm on Fridays throughout the semester and are open to students, faculty, and other members of the urban studies group.

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