Lessons from The Cultural and Political Economy of strongRecoverystrong.pdfVIP

Lessons from The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery ‡ † Christopher J. Coyne Jayme S. Lemke Abstract This essay reviews four of the central themes in Emily Chamily-Wright’s The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery. These themes include: (1) the cultural toolkit, (2) the use of qualitative methods in social science research, (3) polycentricism and disaster recovery, and (4) entrepreneurship in non-priced environments. Our purpose is twofold. First, to make clear Chamlee-Wright’s contributions to our understanding of disaster recovery. Second, to demonstrate how these themes provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange by blending insights from across the social sciences. JEL Codes: B50, O10, O20, Z13 Keywords: cultural toolkit, disaster recovery, polycentricism, quantitative methods ‡ Email: CCoyne3@GMU.edu. Address: George Mason University, Department of Economics, MS 3G4, Fairfax, VA 22030. † Email: Jlemke@GMU.edu. Address: George Mason University, Department of Economics, MS 3G4, Fairfax, VA 22030. 1. Introduction Hurricane Katrina’s arrival at the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005 was only the first in a chain of events that would change the face of the city for years to come. Between the dramatic beating from the storm and the second wave of damage from the broken levee, communities throughout the city suffered enormous damage. Destruction to property was estimated to total between $125 and $165 billion while 270,000 homes were ruined and 1,600 lives were lost (Chamlee-Wright 2010: 1). As Emily Chamlee-Wright’s The