Crisis Response and Social Reproduction on the Brink of Disaster: State, Society, and the Others

Abstract

This review focuses on Peer Illner’s book Disasters and Social Reproduction: Crisis Response between the State and Community, published by Polity Press in 2020. Drawing from the Marxist-feminist analysis of women’s invisible labor in social reproduction, the author emphasizes the significance of communal recuperative labor in post-disaster relief. As the state retreats and reduces its role during disasters, collective solidarity and mutual aid formed in response to crises build the social reproduction of lives rendered vulnerable by disaster as a possibility for transformation.

In the book, Illner focuses on four case studies from the United States. The first case examines the role of the federal government in disaster relief during Hurricane Katrina in the 1920s. The second case addresses the rise of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in the 1960s in response to the state’s failed Keynesian welfare policies. The third case analyzes the effects of austerity measures during the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave on elderly deaths and the increasing crime rates among youth. Finally, the book explores how the anarchist solidarity of Occupy Sandy created an alternative structure after the state’s entirely ineffective response to Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

In the book’s conclusion, Illner draws attention to the relationship between the 2020 pandemic crisis and the death of George Floyd. He notes that the violence inflicted on vulnerable populations during crises will likely bring forth a new paradigm of social reproduction centered on race and class in future crises. To prevent this, Illner underscores the importance of recognizing the invisible labor and struggles of vulnerable groups in social reproduction during disasters.

Keywords:

Disasters, Government of the Disaster, Crisis Response, Social Reproduction.