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A Crisis of Agency in the Agency of Crisis:

Towards a Social Autopsy of New Orleans 

This paper has two goals.  First, to develop a vocabulary for elucidating the social structures and political practices that contribute to the constitution of massive crises.  Second, to examine how processes of political and media discourse work to obscure social logics in so-called natural disasters. To do this, we explore the contours and limitations of an understanding of crisis that is pervasive in the federal government and management theory.  We then propose a fuller conception of crisis through Colin Hay’s notion of displacement and Eric Klinenberg’s focus on the political economy of vulnerability.  In the paper, we read FEMA head Michael Brown’s testimony before Congress on the federal, state, and local response to Hurricane Katrina.  In the end, we aim to uncover the underlying theory of crisis informing the operations of FEMA, so as to reveal how a management style currently in vogue in both public and private bureaucracies contributes to the very crises is promises to address.

some Katrina links:

Social Sciences Research Council perspectives on Katrina

Eric Klinenberg on social services and naturalizing disaster

Natural Resources Defense Council on soil contamination

Michael Brown's testimony before the House