Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Distributing Obligations, Performing Publics: Responsible Citizens in Post-Disaster Engagement

  • Published:
Qualitative Sociology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In public discourse and much sociological research disasters are understood as critical situations in which the engagement of citizens is critical to rebuild the political, material and social texture sustaining everyday life. However, it remains unclear how post-disaster participatory techniques help in the modulation of certain types of citizens. In this article we ask: Do disasters, as a specific setting of participation, qualify or specify how citizenship is construed, thought, and brought into being? Drawing on the case of the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, we explore the role of responsibility distribution, inscribed in the organization and deployment of participatory exercises, in the performativity of citizens. Using in-depth interviews, ethnographic data and archival material we compare three different post-disaster participatory interventions, what we term participation apparatuses. Describing how participation theories and techniques were mobilized to define “who ought to do what,” we argue that different participation apparatuses enacted distinctive responsible publics. We label these publics the epistemic, decisional and narrative responsible publics. Our larger point is that research on the performativity of participation requires an expansion of both the settings of public participation and the mechanisms of performativity within participation apparatuses.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The notion of performativity originally stems from Austin’s (1962) distinction between those utterances that describe a world already out there and those that do something. Taking these cues, philosophers, sociologists and anthropologists have reflected on the capacity of materially-mediated practices to enact reality (see Callon 1999; Licoppe 2010; MacKenzie 2007).

  2. The reconstructions plans were PRES Consitución, PRE Talca, PRES Juan Fernández, PRES Curicó, PRES Pelluhue and PRES Lincantén. It should be noted that, rather confusingly, some documents list more than six cases, which is because two PRES include more than one town: PRES Pelluhue included Pelluhue and Curanipe, while PRES Licantén involved Iloca, Duao and La Pesca.

  3. The reconstruction plan of Talca was called PRE Talca and not PRES Talca owing to a specific political disagreement. For all other purposes, PRES and PRE are equivalent.

  4. The involvement of Arauco in Constitución’s reconstruction plan was severely criticized by local NGOs and civic groups, and exposed the complexities of Constitución’s development trajectory and power structures. For a more detailed account see Tironi (2015).

  5. The fact that this methodology was inspired by the notion of “hybrid forums” proposed by Michael Callon (2009), a leading figure in Actor-Network Theory, is indicative of the forward-looking search behind Foros Híbridos.

  6. The definition and utilization of charrettes in Europe is somewhat different, with a less significant role of drawing and visual projection and a more prominent role of written records.

  7. For the application of the face-to-face survey, key points of the city were selected, such as the mall, the railway station and the main square.

  8. The questions were: (1) What is missing in the city? (2) Select a place for Talca’s postcard (3) If you could select a place in the city to live, what place would you choose? (4) Indicate the place in Talca you like the most and (5) Indicate the place in Talca you like the least.

References

  • Allen, Katrina. 2006. Community-based disaster preparedness and climate adaptation: local capacity building in the Philippines. Disasters 30 (1): 81–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnstein, S. 1969. A Ladder of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Planning Association 35 (4): 216–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baiocchi, Gianpaolo, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Alissa Cordner, Peter Klein, and Stephanie Savell. 2014. The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baubock, Rainer. 1994. Transnational Citizenship: Membership and Rights in International Migration. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellamy, Robert, and Javier Lezaun. 2017. Crafting a public for geoengineering. Public Understanding of Science 26 (4): 402–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, Kathrin, and Susanne Schultz. 2009. ‘... A certain amount of engineering involved’: Constructing the public in participatory governance arrangements. Public Understanding of Science 19: 403–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, Kathrin, and Susanne Schultz. 2010. ‘… a certain amount of engineering involved’: Constructing the public in participatory governance arrangements. Public Understanding of Science 19 (4): 403–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callon, Michel. 1999. The role of lay people in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Science Technology Society 4 (1): 81–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpini, Delli, Michael, Fay Cook, and Lawrence Jacobs. 2004. Public Deliberation, Discursive Participation and Citizen Engagement: An Empirical Review of the Literature. Review of Political Science 7: 315–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, S. 2003. Deliberative democratic theory. Annual Review of Political Science 6: 307–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chilvers, Jason, and Matthew Kearnes. (2015). Remaking Participation: Science. In Environment and Emergent Publics. London: Taylor & Francis.

  • Clark, Nigel. 2012. Inhuman Nature: Sociable Life on a Dynamic Planet. Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colin H. Davidson, Cassidy Johnson, Gonzalo Lizarralde, Nese Dikmen, and Alicia Sliwinski. 2007. Truths and myths about community participation in post-disaster housing projects. Habitat International 31 (1): 100–115.

  • Cruikshank, Barbara. 1999. The Will to Empower. Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects. NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delamaza, Gonzalo. 2005. Tan lejos tan cerca: políticas públicas y sociedad civil en Chile. Santiago: LOM editores.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delanty, Gerard. 1997. Models of citizenship: Defining European identity and citizenship. Citizenship Studies 1 (3): 285–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deville, Joe, Guggenheim, Michel, and Hrdličková, Zuzana. 2013. Same but different: Provoking relations, assembling the comparator. Working Paper, Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process (CSISP), Goldsmiths, University of London.

  • EPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency 2013. Charrettes. Available at http://www.epa.gov/international/public-participation-guide/Tools/Input/charrette.html (last accessed, 13 December 2018).

  • Erikson, Kai. 1994. A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Felt, Ulrike, and Maximilian Fochler. 2010. Machineries for making publics: Inscribing and de-scribing publics in public engagement. Minerva 48: 219–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Girard, Monique and Stark, David. 2007. Socio-technologies of assembly: Sense making and demonstration in rebuilding lower Manhattan. ISERP working papers 05–09, Institute for Social and Economic Research and policy, Columbia University.

  • Gobierno de Chile. 2010. Programa de Reconstrucción Terremoto y Maremoto del 27 de Febrero de 2010. Santiago: Resumen Ejecutivo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K., M. Garcia, and J. Remes. 2016. Beyond "natural-disasters-are-not-natural": the work of state and nature after the 2010 earthquake in Chile. Journal of Political Ecology 23 (1): 93–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hilgartner, Stephen. 2007. Overflow and containment in the aftermath of disaster. Social Studies of Science 37 (1): 153–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horst, Maja, and Alan Irwin. 2010. Nations at ease with radical knowledge: On consensus, consensuing and false consensuses. Social Studies of Science 40 (1): 105–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, Alan. 2001. Constructing the scientific citizen: Science and democracy in the biosciences. Public Understanding of Science 10 (1): 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, Alan. 2006. The politics of talk coming to terms with the ‘new’ scientific governance. Social Studies of Science 36 (2): 299–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 1988. The Bhopal disaster and the right to know. Social Science and Medicine 27 (10): 1113–1123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 1994. Learning from disaster: risk management after Bhopal. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, Gary. 1998. Disaster as systemic event and social catalyst. In What is a disaster? Perspectives on the question, ed. E.L. Quarantelli. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, Andrew, and Stephen Collier. 2010. Infrastructure and Event: The Political Technology of Preparedness. In Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy and Public Life, ed. B. Braun and S. Whatmore. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Law, John and Singleton, 2006. A further species of trouble? Disaster and narrative. www.heterogeneities.net/publications/LawSingleton2006SpeciesOfTrouble.pdf (last accessed December 2018).

  • Levidow, Les, and Claire Marris. 2001. Science and governance in Europe: Lessons from the case of agricultural biotechnology. Science and Public Policy 28 (5): 345–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lezaun, Javier, and Nerea Calvillo. 2013. In the political laboratory: Kurt Lewin's atmospheres. Journal of Cultural Economy 7 (4): 434–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lezaun, Javier, and Linda Soneryd. 2007. Consulting citizens: Technologies of elicitation and the mobility of publics. Public Understanding of Science 16: 279–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lezaun, Javier, Noortje Marres, and Manuel Tironi. 2016. Experiments in Participation. In Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, ed. C. Miller, E. Smitt-Doer, U. Felt, and R. Fouche, vol. 4. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichterman, Paul. 2006. Social Capital or Group Style? Rescuing Tocqueville's Insights on Civic Engagement. Theory and Society 35 (5/6): 529–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lichterman, Paul, and Nina Eliasoph. 2014. Civic Action. American Journal of Sociology 120 (3): 798–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Licoppe, C. 2010. The ‘performative turn’ in science and technology studies. Journal of Cultural Economy 3 (2): 181–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lister, R. 1998. Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives. New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie, D. 2007. Is Economics Performative? Option Theory and the Construction of Derivatives Markets. In Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, ed. D. Mackenzie, F. Muniesa, and L. Siu. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marres, Noortje. 2012. Material Participation. Technology. In the Environment and Everyday Publics. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marres, Noortje, and Javier Lezaun. 2011. Materials and devices of the public: An introduction. Economy and Society 40 (4): 489–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, T.H. 1992. Citizenship and social class. In Citizenship and social class, ed. T.H. Marshall and T. Bottomore. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Méheux, Kirstie, Dale Dominey-Howes, and Kate Lloyd. 2010. Operational challenges to community participation in post-disaster damage assessments: observations from Fiji. Disasters 34 (4): 1102–1122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michael, Mike. 2014. Afterword: on the Topologies and Temporalities of Disaster. The Sociological Review 62 (1S): 236–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michael, Michael. 2009. Publics performing publics: Of PiGs, PiPs and politics. Public Understanding of Science 18 (5): 617–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mileti, Dennis. 1999. Disasters By Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo. 2010. Minuta Programación de Reconstrucción Territorial, Urbana y Patrimonial. Santiago.

  • MINVU, Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo. 2010. Plan de Reconstrucción: Chile Unido Reconstruye Mejor. http://minvu.cl/incjs/download.aspx?glb_cod_nodo=20111122105648&hdd_nom_archivo=Plan%20de%20Reconstrucci%C3%B3n.pdf. Accessed 17 Jan 2019.

  • Muniesa, Fabian and Callon, Michael. 2007. “Economic experiments and the construction of markets.” In Do economists make markets? On the performativity of Economics, edited by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa and Lucia Siu Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  • Oliver-Smith, A. 1999. ‘What is a disaster?’ Anthropological perspectives on a persistent question. In The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective, ed. S. Hoffman and A. Oliver-Smith. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver-Smith, Anthony. 2002. Theorizing disasters: nature, power, and culture. In Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster, ed. S. Hoffman and A. Oliver-Smith. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver-Smith, Anthony, and Susanne Hoffman. 2002. Introduction: Why Anthropologist Should Study Disasters. In Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster, ed. S. Hoffman and A. Oliver-Smith. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, Laurie. 2003. Disaster Management and Community Planning, and Public Participation: How to Achieve Sustainable Hazard Mitigation. Natural Hazards 28: 211–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelling, Mark. 2007. Learning from others: the scope and challenges for participatory disaster risk assessment. Disasters 31 (4): 373–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perry, Ronald. 2005. Disasters, Definitions And Theory Construction. In What is a disaster? New Answers to Old Questions, ed. R. Perry and E.L. Quarantelli. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polleta, Francesca. 2002. Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli, Elizabeth. 2011. Economies of Abandonment: Social Belonging and Endurance in Late Liberalism. Duke University Press.

  • PRES Constitución. 2010a. Memoria General. Santiago.

  • PRES Constitución. 2010b. Plan de Participación Ciudadana. Santiago.

  • PRES Constitución. 2010c. Official website, www.presconstitucion.cl, last accessed December 2018.

  • PRES Juan Fernández. 2010. Plan Maestro. AOA public presentation.

  • PRE Talca. 2011. Informe final. Polis documentation.

  • Puig de la Bellacasa, M. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E.L., ed. 1998. What Is a Disaster? Perspectives on the Question. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rojas, David. 2015. Environmental management and open-air experiments in Brazilian Amazonia. Geoforum 66: 136–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, Gene, and Lynn J. Frewer. 2014. Public Participation Methods: A Framework for Evaluation. Science, Technology & Human Values 25 (1): 3–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rydin, Yvonne, and Mark Pennington. 2010. Public Participation and Local Environmental Planning: The collective action problem and the potential of social capital. Local Environment 5 (2): 153–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stengers, Isabelle. 2011. Comparison as a matter of concern. Common Knowledge 17 (1): 48–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tironi, Manuel. 2014. Atmospheres of indagation: disasters and the politics of excessiveness. Sociological Review 62 (1): 114–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tironi, Manuel. 2015. Disastrous Publics: Counter-enactments in Participatory Experiments. Science, Technology, & Human Values 40 (4): 564–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tironi, M., I. Poduje, and N. Somma. 2011. Organizaciones emergentes, participación ciudadana y planificación urbana: una propuesta de política pública”, in Camino al Bicentenario. Propuestas para Chile 2010. Santiago: P. Universidad Católica de Chile.

  • Tironi, Manuel, and Ignacio Farías. 2015. Building a park, immunising life: Environmental management and radical asymmetry. Geoforum 66: 167–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tironi, M., and I. Rodríguez-Giralt. 2017. Healing, knowing, enduring: Care and politics in damaged worlds. Sociological Review 65 (2): 89–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Disaster Relief Organization. 1982. Shelter After Disaster. Geneva.

  • Warner, J., and M.T. Oré. 2006. El Niño platforms: participatory disaster response in Peru. Disasters 30 (1): 102–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wetmore, Jameson. 2007. Distributing risks and responsibilities: Flood hazard mitigation in New Orleans. Social Studies of Science 37: 119–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynne, Brian. 1991. Knowledges in context. Science, Technology and Human Values 16 (1): 111–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynne, Brian. 1995. Public understanding of science. In Handbook of science and technology studies, ed. S. Jasanoff, G. Markle, J. Petersen, and T. Pinch, 361–388. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yaneva, Albena. 2012. Mapping controversies in architecture. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, Iris Marion. 2002. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Campus San Joaquín, Instituto de Sociología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, 7820436, Santiago, Chile

    Juan Lama & Manuel Tironi

  2. Centro de Investigación para la Gestión Integrada de Riesgo de Desastres CONICYT/FONDAP 15110017, Campus San Joaquín, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, 7820436, Santiago, Chile

    Manuel Tironi

Authors
  1. Juan Lama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Manuel Tironi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Tironi.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lama, J., Tironi, M. Distributing Obligations, Performing Publics: Responsible Citizens in Post-Disaster Engagement. Qual Sociol 42, 1–23 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9407-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9407-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation