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- Title
Displaced Trust: Disrupting Legal Estrangement during Disaster Recovery.
- Authors
Simington, Jasmine
- Abstract
Recent research on federal disaster aid distribution reveals stark racial and economic inequalities. Importantly, the very individuals and groups disadvantaged by FEMA funding—non-White, low-income households—are also the populations most likely to exhibit distrust toward the state. How does distrust shape the disaster recovery process in a low-income, rural, predominantly Black context? Using semi-structured interviews coupled with ethnographic observations in Marion County, SC, I find that the disaster recovery process is hindered by legal estrangement. To combat distrust and exclusion, emergent groups use the tactic of displacing trust away from disaster recovery officials back onto emergent groups in order to initiate and sustain residents' engagement with the formal disaster recovery process. While existing theories argue that distrust leads to withdrawal from services, I show that emergent groups during disaster recovery intervene such that applicants persist in applying for aid despite their distrust. These strategies point to an important paradox about mitigating legal estrangement. Emergent disaster recovery groups assist applicants without improving trust toward disaster recovery officials, and sometimes in solidarity with applicant distrust. Broadly, the efforts of emergent groups reveal that institutional intermediaries can play a key brokering role in helping structurally excluded populations pursue state assistance amidst distrust.
- Subjects
DISASTER relief; DISASTERS; ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis; SOLIDARITY; POPULATION
- Publication
Social Forces, 2023, Vol 102, Issue 2, p771
- ISSN
0037-7732
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/sf/soad026