Cartographies of law: Mapping the inter-legalities of disaster recovery

Abstract

This thesis considers shelter-recovery and relocation projects undertaken in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. It transforms Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ “structural places” theory into an analytical methodology, to identify the inter-legal effects of complex regulatory environments. The thesis identifies the most significant sites of communicative interaction for the humanitarian shelter project, and the social agency, institutions, forms of legitimation, power, law, and common sense particular to each place. Once mapped, three case studies are developed from fieldwork carried out in the Philippines, in Tacloban City and on Bantayan Island, following Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) in late 2013. In both sites, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and climate-adaptation were incorporated into shelter reconstruction endeavour. The three case studies enable the recovery to be analysed from place-informed vantage points: from the site of the relationship between the state and those over whom it has jurisdiction, the relationship between the donor and implementing organisation, the relationship between members of the humanitarian community and the local community, and from the site of the project itself. The thesis demonstrates that while local forms of law regulate each of these sites, the regulatory matrix that directs action depends instead on the complex interaction between multiple legal orders and rationalities. In undertaking this task, the thesis demonstrates the usefulness of Santos’ structural places theory as a methodology. Further, it further provides insights on both adverse and positive outcomes in post-disaster shelter recovery.