Overview

In Disaster Nationalism, Vivian Y. Choi examines how the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami fostered new forms of governance and militarization during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war that led to enduring forms of precarity and insecurity. Tracing the development of disaster management projects following the tsunami, Choi demonstrates how these projects rest on a logic that treats natural disasters and terrorism as inevitable risks in need of management. The tsunami’s destruction foreclosed the possibility of political resolution to the war, as the state leveraged these projects to justify its militarized aggression in the war against the Tamil Tigers and a new construction of the Sri Lankan nation. Choi reveals how, paradoxically, state-sponsored disaster management projects-from new buffer and border zones to early warning systems-created more insecurity. Choi amplifies the experiences of those affected by the tsunami, particularly Tamil and Muslim communities. In so doing, Choi shows how life perseveres against perpetual uncertainty and danger-caused by natural disasters and state-sanctioned violence alike.

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9781478028468

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“Vivian Y. Choi’s portrayal and analysis of how disasters are endured by people, portrayed by the media and strategized by governments as well as her descriptions of the different kinds of sensing that disasters provoke—from scientists and people living in disaster zones to the government’s disaster warning systems—are exemplary and important. With this analysis, she draws disaster studies into an important stream of work in the history and anthropology of science that examines forms of knowledge and knowledge representation that secure legitimacy in different historical and cultural settings.” -- Kim Fortun, author of * Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders * “For ordinary people in Sri Lanka, disasters come in multiple fronts and layers. Vivian Y. Choi’s beautiful, rich, and deeply original ethnography teaches us how to address complex lives within the global South, forcing us to think about disasters and disaster management as political projects and to prioritize how ordinary people in Sri Lanka inhabit lives informed by a constant sense of danger. This book is a gift to us all.” -- Sharika Thiranagama, author of * In My Mother’s House: Civil War in Sri Lanka * “As fires, floods, pandemics, and warfare increasingly compete for collective attention, what happens to ideas about futurity and governance? Vivian Y. Choi not only unpacks the ‘when’ of disaster in Sri Lanka; she provides a vital new grammar for understanding how national security is remade as amplifying precarity. An indispensable contribution to understanding our troubled times.” -- Joseph Masco, author of * The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making *

Author Information

Vivian Y. Choi is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at St. Olaf College.

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