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Mississippi front-line recovery work after Hurricane Katrina: An analysis of the intersections of gender, race, and class in advocacy, power relations, and health

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  • Weber, Lynn
  • Hilfinger Messias, DeAnne K.

Abstract

By disrupting the routine practices and social structures that support social hierarchy, disasters provide a unique opportunity to observe how gender, race, and class power relations are enacted and reconstituted to shape health inequities. Using a feminist intersectional framework, we examine the dynamic relationships among a government/corporate alliance, front-line disaster recovery workers, and disadvantaged residents in Mississippi Gulf Coast communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which struck in August, 2005. Data were collected between January 2007 and October 2008 through field observations, public document analysis, and in-depth interviews with 32 front-line workers representing 27 non-governmental, nonprofit community-based organizations. Our analysis reveals how power relationships among these groups operated at the macro-level of the political economy as well as in individual lives, increasing health risks among both the disadvantaged and the front-line workers serving and advocating on their behalf. Socially situated as outsiders-within, front-line recovery workers operated in the middle ground between the disadvantaged populations they served and the powerful alliance that controlled access to essential resources. From this location, they both observed and were subject to the processes guiding the allocation of resources and their unequal outcomes. Following a brief period of hope for progressive change, recovery workers became increasingly stressed and fatigued, particularly from lack of communication and coordination, limited resources, insufficient capacity to meet overwhelming demands, and gendered and racialized mechanisms of marginalization and exclusion. The personal and collective health burdens borne by these front-line recovery workers – predominantly women and people of color – exemplify the ways in which the social relations of power and control contribute to health and social inequities.

Suggested Citation

  • Weber, Lynn & Hilfinger Messias, DeAnne K., 2012. "Mississippi front-line recovery work after Hurricane Katrina: An analysis of the intersections of gender, race, and class in advocacy, power relations, and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1833-1841.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:11:p:1833-1841
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.034
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bates, Lisa Michelle & Hankivsky, Olena & Springer, Kristen W., 2009. "Gender and health inequities: A comment on the Final Report of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1002-1004, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mimmie C Ngum Chi Watts & Pranee Liamputtong & Mary Carolan, 2014. "Contraception knowledge and attitudes: truths and myths among African Australian teenage mothers in Greater Melbourne, Australia," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(15-16), pages 2131-2141, August.
    2. Ana Raquel Nunes, 2018. "The contribution of assets to adaptation to extreme temperatures among older adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Tan-Mullins, May & Abrahamse, Wokje, 2018. "Bloated bodies and broken bricks: Power, ecology, and inequality in the political economy of natural disaster recovery," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 243-255.
    4. Cappelli, Federica, 2020. "Investigating the Origins of Differentiated Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and their Effects on Wellbeing," FACTS: Firms And Cities Towards Sustainability 307987, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) > FACTS: Firms And Cities Towards Sustainability.
    5. Federica Cappelli, 2023. "Investigating the origins of differentiated vulnerabilities to climate change through the lenses of the Capability Approach," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 1051-1074, October.
    6. Sungyoon Lee & Jennifer Dodge & Gang Chen, 2022. "The cost of social vulnerability: an integrative conceptual framework and model for assessing financial risks in natural disaster management," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 114(1), pages 691-712, October.

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