Stratifying Disaster: State Aid, Institutional Processes, and Inequality in American Communities.
Disaster aid is an increasingly costly form of social spending and an often-overlooked way that welfare states manage new forms of risk related to climate change. In this article, I argue that disaster aid programs engender racial and socioeconomic inequalities through a process of assistance access...
| Published in: | Social Forces Vol. 102; no. 2; pp. 430 - 454 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Dec2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=172954837&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 172954837 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00377732 SFR jtl: Social Forces issn: 00377732 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2023 vid: 102 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 172954837 10.1093/sf/soad050 ppf: 430 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 7.7MB tig: atl: Stratifying Disaster: State Aid, Institutional Processes, and Inequality in American Communities. aug: au: Raker, Ethan J affil: Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia , 6303 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 , Canada su: United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster relief Welfare state Climate change Homeowners sug: subj: Disaster relief Welfare state Climate change Homeowners United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency Emergency and Other Relief Services Other Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities ab: Disaster aid is an increasingly costly form of social spending and an often-overlooked way that welfare states manage new forms of risk related to climate change. In this article, I argue that disaster aid programs engender racial and socioeconomic inequalities through a process of assistance access constituted by distinct state logics, administrative burdens, and bureaucratic actors. I test this claim empirically by analyzing 5.37 million applicant records from FEMA's Individuals and Households Program (IHP) from 2005 to 2016. Results demonstrate that key institutional features—the conditions of eligibility and sufficiency, burdens of proof, and assessments by contracted inspectors—combine in a stepwise process to funnel permanent repair resources to homeowners in whiter communities, while temporary rental aid is granted disproportionately to households in communities of color. Analyses of denial codes suggest racial disparities in appraisals of disaster damage. Among those approved for aid, more benefits accrue to those from comparatively higher income communities, and a decoupling of permanent and temporary housing aid further stratifies socioeconomic growth during recovery. Theoretically, this research advances an account of institutional processes transferable to other analyses of social programs, and it introduces climate risk as a new form of social risk against which welfare states insure citizens. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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