Collaborative Publics

Abstract

Collaborative publics view misery as a disposition that needs to be overcome by hope. They are collaborative as far as they view post-disaster rehabilitation as a ‘deliberative project’—one that is made coherent by a shared storyline of collaboration rather than that of contestation, linked together by democratic professionals, and sustained by processes of community-level deliberations. The chapter draws on the case study of a ‘model community’ which effectively mobilized displaced communities to become political actors who take charge of their own recovery. The chapter concludes by distinguishing collaborative from contestatory publics and examining collaborative publics’ contributions in post-disaster politics.