Using data from interviews with affected residents and community leaders in New Orleans after Katrina, this article explores the effectiveness of private disaster recovery efforts and whether or not there are reasons to believe that a decentralized rather than a centralized response to disasters could be more effective.

This paper investigates the political economy of FEMA’s post-9/11 merger with the Department of Homeland Security.

This paper examines the role of the social entrepreneur in post-Katrina recovery and presents implications for policy.

This study contributes to the literature on the strength of place attachment, identity and dependence in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. It also engages the literature concerning the role of sense of place in community engagement and the disruption in place attachment, identity and dependence that natural disasters can cause.

Major American companies from Marriott to McDonald’s to Wal-Mart undertook major and minor acts of bourgeois virtue and contributed in a significant way to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Doing the right thing” was central to their response. What constituted “doing the right thing,” how the very nature of large capitalist enterprises made doing “right” possible, and how doing “right” improved conditions after Katrina is explored in this working paper.

This issue of Local Knowledge focuses on the role of nonprofits and social entrepreneurs in rebuilding the Gulf Coast. In this issue you can read research articles that explain what social entrepreneurship is; that discuss how social entrepreneurs and nonprofits play a critical role in the response to and recovery after disasters; and that detail where and when nonprofits have played key parts in rebuilding.

Despite having their plans frustrated through the regulations and uncertainty created by government action, humankind has still demonstrated a remarkable resilience following a natural or manmade disaster.  We argue that this is due to the civilizing and coordinating roles played by civil society.  For-profit companies, charities and churches play a vital role in the recovery process.  These organizations have proven to be the first, and most well equipped responders to disasters, jump starting the recovery process.

A system of Optional Federal Chartering (OFC) for property insurers has been proposed to address problems with the state regulation of insurance, under which insurers would be able to opt into a federal regulatory system, leaving behind the system of patchwork state regulations. This paper discusses the benefits and problems with both the state-based and federal-based regulatory systems and suggests ways to achieve better outcomes if policy makers enact OFC.

This written testimony was delivered to the Texas House of Representatives Insurance Committee as part of the February 24, 2009 hearing on Texas Windstorm Insurance Assocation.

This written testimony was delivered to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Subcommittee on Domestic Policy as part of the June 26, 2007 hearing on labor law enforcement and regulation in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

This book seeks to understand how people cultivate strategies for recovery when the answers are not obvious; when a genuine process of discovery is required; and at points when the social coordination problems a post-disaster environment presents are most pronounced. The analysis presented in this book suggests that at its core, post-disaster community redevelopment is a process of complex social learning.

Maurice McTigue speaks to the World Trade Center in New Orleans regarding transparency in government, and its importance in assuring sustainable economic and social development.