International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment

Framing responses to post-earthquake Haiti: How representations of disasters,

reconstruction and human settlements shape resilience
Lisa Bornstein Gonzalo Lizarralde Kevin A. Gould Colin Davidson
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earthquake Haiti", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 4 Iss 1 pp. 43 -
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Responses to
Framing responses post-earthquake
to post-earthquake Haiti Haiti
How representations of disasters,
reconstruction and human settlements 43
shape resilience
Lisa Bornstein
School of Urban Planning, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Gonzalo Lizarralde
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Faculté de L’aménagement, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

Kevin A. Gould
Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University,
Montreal, Canada, and
Colin Davidson
Faculté de L’aménagement, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to add a new dimension to urban resilience by exploring how
representations of disasters, reconstruction and human settlements are made, and how, by shaping
plans and programs, they ultimately influence resilience.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on James Scott’s notion of “legibility” to ask
how different representations simplify complex realities and how they are transformed into plans and
programs. The paper first outlines the various broad analytic lens used to examine legibility to portray
post-disaster reconstruction, drawing on international literature and policies. The paper then focuses
on post-earthquake Haiti and analyzes eight reconstruction plans and reviews design proposals
submitted for the Building Back Better Communities program to explore how different stakeholders
portrayed the disaster, identified the reconstruction challenges and proposed to address human
settlements.
Findings – Representations of the disaster, the reconstruction challenge and the housing problem
were quite varied. While the plans assumed a very broad view of the reconstruction challenge (one that
goes beyond the representations found in the literature), the BBBC program adopted a very narrow
view of it (one that the literature condemns for failing to achieve sustainable resilience).
Research limitations/implications – The empirical research is exploratory, suggesting an
approach that throws a new light on the analysis of plans and programs for improved resilience.
Practical implications – The study suggests that the representations that decision makers,
institutions and organizations make of the world ultimately establish the framework in which
resilience is constructed.
Originality/value – The lens of legibility confirms that the expression of different representations
makes the world legible in different ways and therefore transforms the way in which resilience can be
improved. International Journal of Disaster
Resilience in the Built Environment
Keywords Resilience, Legibility, Plans, Human settlements, Disaster response, Haiti, Disasters Vol. 4 No. 1, 2013
pp. 43-57
Paper type Research paper q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1759-5908
DOI 10.1108/17595901311298991
 IJDRBE 1. Introduction
4,1 This paper explores how representations of disasters, reconstruction and human
settlements are put forward at critical junctures in the recovery process, and how,
in shaping plans and programs, thereby influence urban resilience.
Much of the literature on disasters and reconstruction has focused on the technical
challenges of immediate emergency response to basic needs of shelter, food, and health
44 services, the balance between short-term responses and those oriented towards
long-term reconstruction, and such key dilemmas as the political and economic rights
of displaced people, the means to assure meaningful bottom-up participation, and the
roles of international, national and local actors.
The framing of a disaster and subsequent reconstruction in a specific way, and its
ultimate translation into policy, plans and programs, is intimately related to the
consolidation of the state, its relations to the polity and local development trajectories.
As such, it is also directly related to the dynamics of local resilience, the latter
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understood as both the ability of a system to survive a shock and, importantly, to adjust
to make such future shocks less damaging (Polese, n.d.). The theoretical literature
underpinning such an analytic approach is presented in the following section.
To make sense of how representations matter in post-disaster planning, first the
contours of the disaster/post-disaster reconstruction field are sketched, roughly in
chronological sequence, reviewing the four international approaches to disasters that
have dominated the field. For each approach, we outline the “nature of disaster”,
the principal aims of intervention, and the best means to do so (Section 3). At the
empirical level, we examine official plans (Section 4a) and competing proposals
(Section 4b) for reconstruction in Haiti following the earthquake of January 12, 2010.
Problem-framing and representational narratives affect policy (Schön and Rein, 1994;
Roe, 1994); plans and proposals reflect struggles over the definition of state-civil society
relations as each consolidates (Scott, 1998; Ferguson, 2005); and, crucially, the process of
disaster planning – from representation of needs to community reconstruction – defines
new roles and relations for the state, international actors, local residents, NGOs,
businesses, etc. that are as important to future community resilience as the technical
planning of physical structures, participatory inputs, or services.

2. Policy frames and “legibility”

The analytical approach advanced here rests on three inter-related observations.
First, the narrative, representational and discursive levels are important to
understanding formulation and adoption of policies, programs and plans, including
those after disasters. Policy framing can be understood as “a way of selecting,
organizing, interpreting and making sense of a complex reality to provide guideposts
for knowing, analyzing, persuading, and acting” (Rein and Schön, 1993, p. 145); as such,
it “socially constructs the situation, defines what is problematic about it, and suggests
what courses of action are appropriate to it” (Rein and Schön, 1993, p. 153). Especially
when the situation is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and contention,
the resulting narratives underpin “the assumptions for decision-making” and thus tend
to persist, even in the face of contradictory evidence (Roe, 1994, p. 2).
Second, the processes of framing, adopting and implementing policies are highly
political and occur in a context where power is not evenly shared. We draw here first on
Scott’s (1998) work on state planning and bureaucratization; governments historically
 introduced tools such as cadastral maps and standard measurements to enhance Responses to
administrative capacity to tax, monitor and control, thereby consolidating state power. post-earthquake
The process of simplifying a complex reality, of replacing local systems of knowledge
with those that met the needs of the state, renders particular characteristics of Haiti
populations and environments “legible”. Importantly, as Scott asserts, this typification
is not only about a particular sort of vision or representation, but also produces new
material relations – states transmit these ways of seeing into institutions, laws, and 45
norms, such as housing types, building codes, or standards. Advancing a particular
representation of reality, and implementing these in policies and practices in
homogenizing and standardized ways, is what allows the state to act effectively.
The context in which such dynamics operate in the contemporary world are
also shaped by extreme inequalities at a global level and by states that have not
consolidated power, that are instead weak, fractured, or resource-constrained
(Bornstein, 2008). In this respect, Ferguson (2005) notes current constraints on state
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power, namely: the neo-liberal attack on the state; the influence of international bodies
(corporate and governmental) relative to national ones; the on-going usefulness of
disorder to divisions within the state (Reno, 1998); and the consequent fracturing of the
national territory, in which localities become the relevant boundary for consolidation,
standardization and global integration rather than the nation. In sum, while the
forms of legibility imposed by a modernizing state may still be important, studies of
such processes of simplification and standardization in poor countries may need to
consider state power vis-à-vis both local and international players.
Klein (2007, p. 49) provides a relevant example of the way in which international
interests may impose new policy frames and forms of legibility, arguing that:
[. . .] disasters have become the preferred moments for advancing a vision of a ruthlessly
divided world, one in which the very idea of a public sphere has no place at all [. . .]. Every
time a new crisis hits – even when the crisis itself is the direct by-product of free-market
ideology – the fear and disorientation that follow are harnessed for radical social and
economic re-engineering.
In her analysis, post-disaster periods offer an opportunity to advance a particular
political and economic agenda, that of neo-liberalism. Privatization, entry of foreign
investment and firms, and reshaping of local political and financial institutions ensue.
State capacity may diminish rather than be strengthened during post-disaster
reconstruction. While neo-liberal policies are not the only ones that may be imposed or
encouraged post-disaster, Klein’s analysis is particularly relevant in the case of Haiti
where a neo-liberal arrangements were already well entrenched even before the
earthquake (Schuller, 2009).
A third observation relates to the way that historical, cultural and racial narratives
become articulated in processes of framing, adopting and implementing policies.
Of particular relevance here are stories about the vulnerability of Caribbean and Latin
American countries. Often framed by tropes of the primitive, the traditional, the
lawless, etc. these narratives serve to justify the authority of outsiders and especially
Europeans and North Americans in the affairs of Latin American and Caribbean
nations (Berger, 1995; Escobar, 1995). In the context of Haiti for example, Farmer (1994)
documents how US interventionist and imperialist policies towards Haiti were justified
according to just such tropes: the “isolation” and “primitivism” of Haiti and Haitians.
Other authors have highlighted how similar trophes have been employed in
 IJDRBE post-earthquake Haiti (Bellegarde-Smith, 2010; Farmer, 2011; Lundy, 2010;
4,1 Zanotti, 2010). In brief, policy frames, discourse and the resulting plans and
practices draw upon and reproduce varied understandings of race, culture and history
with implications for local level recovery and resilience.
These observations, taken together, can be used to analyze how the challenge of
post-disaster reconstruction is understood and pursued. For instance, in the wider field
46 of post-disaster studies, the focus on legibility throws into relief the shifts in the tectonics
of post-disaster reconstruction response (Table I). Four generations of approaches are
apparent. Throughout the 1980s, the United Nations and international agencies
considered disasters as “interruptions of the regular order of societies” and the
reconstruction process as “actions taken to re-establish a community” that “would
include construction of permanent housing, full restoration of services, and complete
resumption of the pre-disaster state” (UNDHA, 1992). By narrowly defining pre-disaster
situations as the norm, the international agencies were able to focus on actions that were
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“time-bound and sector-specific”. A revised definition of disasters as a product of

vulnerabilities emerged in the 1990s (UN/ISDR, 2009). Vulnerabilities were defined as the
physical, social, economic and environmental factors that lead a community to a certain
level of “weakness”, such that, stricken by a hazard, a considerable level of destruction
follows. There were two immediate implications of such an approach: recognition of the
social construction of disaster, and a search for “root causes” of vulnerability (Blaikie et al.,
1994; Pelling, 2003). More recent framings of disasters and reconstruction have
emphasized capabilities, drawing on Sen (1999); vulnerabilities are linked to insufficient
freedoms and scarce capacity to choose; reconstruction, in this frame, is seen as a “process
of improvement of pre-disaster capabilities, targeted to achieving long-term local
development and disaster risk reduction, through the pairing of local and external
resources” (Lizarralde and Raynaud, 2011, p. 2). Finally, a fourth strand of meanings
was propelled by the widespread adoption of the concept of resilience, which contributes
to a representation of the causes of disasters as complex interactions between society and
the physical environment (McEntire et al., 2002). It encompasses both the principles
of preparedness and reaction within dynamic systems (Bosher, 2008) and focuses
responses on bridging the gap between pre-disaster actions and post-disaster

View of reconstruction View of human

Approaches View of the disaster process settlements

1. Disaster As an interruption of the Moment to resume the Improved by returning

management regular order of societies pre-disaster state to the previous state
(UNDHA, UN-ISDR)
2. Vulnerability As a result of root causes Moment to reduce Improved through the
of vulnerabilities vulnerabilities reduction of social and
physical
vulnerabilities
Table I. 3. Capability As a result of insufficient Moment for increasing Improved through
Representations of freedoms and scarce capabilities household’s increased
disaster, reconstruction capacity to choose freedom to choose
and human settlements 4. Resilience As an inability of the Moment to reduce risk Improved through
in the international system to absorb and and increase preventative and
literature adapt to external stresses preparedness reactive measures
 interventions, and between structural (e.g. strengthening of buildings) and Responses to
non-structural (e.g. better urban planning) mitigation (Bosher, 2008; McEntire, 2011). post-earthquake
As these examples suggests, the analytical approach used here shows how a
particular policy frame simplifies and renders the world legible in ways that allow Haiti
disaster response to happen, and which also functions so that certain complexities
of the world are forgotten (rendered illegible).
47
3. Methods
The three observations above provide a theoretical and methodological framework for
analysis of policies, plans and practices related to disaster. Narrative analysis of plans,
policies and practices is well-established (Roe, 1994; Escobar, 1995; Scott, 1998) as
a methodology in the social and policy sciences.
The empirical investigation was designed as an exploratory study of how plans for
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local redevelopment in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake reflected particular ways of
“seeing a disaster, local recovery, and longer-term resilience”. It examines two levels
of post-earthquake response: plans for reconstruction of settlements (Section 4), and
proposals submitted in a competition, covered in Section 5.
Printed documentation about the following six plans was collected and analyzed: the
Plan for National Development and Recovery (Government of Haiti, March 2010); the
strategic Plan for the Re-founding of Haiti (Government of Haiti, March 2010); the “Haiti
Tomorrow” plan (Haiti Demain) produced by the Inter-ministerial Committee on
Territorial Planning (Republique d’Haiti – CIAT, 2010); the Strategic Plan for National
Salvation (civil society document); The Plan of Action for a New Haiti (international civil
society document); and the “Plateforme de patriots haitiens” (PLAPH) (a political party).
In addition, between February 2010 and July 2011, one author attended six major
meetings related to disaster response at which key Haitians (e.g. mayors, representatives
of local institutions, Haitian expatriates, and experts) played a significant role; plans
were both elaborated and presented, and participant observation of these events
supplements our analysis of the written plans.
The plans above, while revealing, do not permit detailed analysis of the transmittal
of policy frames to specific projects and practices. To remedy this, we conducted
analysis of Building Back Better Communities (BBBC), a program to improve human
settlements in Haiti. The core of this program was an international request for
proposals (RFP) for housing solutions. Our examination of the various proposals at the
level of building and site reconstruction allowed for assessment of a narrower, and also
pragmatic, framing of the disaster and reconstruction challenges.
The BBBC program was initiated by a partnership of local and international,
public and private, stakeholders to “discover and promote” the best solutions for
post-earthquake reconstruction. The competition for best housing designs began in
early 2010 with a RFP that closed with over 360 submissions, arguably one of the
world’s most successful competitions of its kind.
We examined the RFP itself and documentation of several entries that were
successful in the competition (entries were extensively documented by the proponents,
architects and construction companies in online plans, photos and descriptions).
In addition, a special issue of The Gazette, a Canadian newspaper, documented several
proposals, providing photos of each of the housing prototypes, videos, interviews and
technical description of the units ((The) Gazette, 2011).
 IJDRBE The plans and proposals were analyzed with respect to:
4,1 .
the definition of the problem;
.
policy initiatives (sectors addressed, scale of intervention, key actors to be
involved); and
.
depiction of desired human settlements attributes and resilience.
48 Importantly, the aim was not to critique the content of the plans and proposals per se.
Rather, following Scott’s (1998) approach to legibility, analysis addressed the framing
of the documents – what they put into focus and what they left obscure – and the
implications of this framing for programs, practices and settlements. Indeed, as Bar
(2011, p. 14) observes:
[. . .] we do not interpret our world merely by analyzing incoming information, but rather we
try to understand it using a proactive link of incoming features to existing, familiar
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information (e.g. objects, people, situations).

Bearing in mind the importance of framing as a motor for actions is of crucial
importance.

4. Results and discussion

(a) A Haitian “state of disaster”
Four distinct approaches to the framing of post-disaster recovery are apparent in the
proposed plans, situated in the diagnosis of the central problem: the weak state, weak
conditions for development, weak governance and planning, and lack of adequate
shelter.
1. The weak state. The strategic Plan for the Re-founding of Haiti, prepared by
Haitian civil society organizations, centers on reform of the state as the key to recovery.
It identifies the key problem in post-earthquake recovery as a structural failure of the
state, manifest visibly in the physical damage to the presidential palace and several
ministries, but principally oriented towards urgent Restauration de l’état (Restoration
of the State) that would allow for the “overall reconstruction of the country”. Three
aspects were required for the re-establishing the foundations of the Haitian state:
“the consolidation of a legitimate political force capable of defending the national
sovereignty; the development of the civil society; and the reinforcement of education
and training.” Plan proponents contend that “re-founding” should become a project of
the society at large. The disaster was seen as an excuse to recreate national
institutions, define “Haitian” values and claim the sovereignty of the Haitian republic,
a partial response to a long history of international aid and domination. Political
decentralization was seen as indispensable, whereby concentration of power and
resources in what many call the “Republique de Port-au-Prince” would be contained.
In this approach, culture – understood as traditional cultural representations – was
also seen as a fundamental vehicle for the regeneration of local values. The
interventions needed thus went beyond the reconstruction of settlements, buildings
and infrastructure. Disaster becomes, in this plan, a catalyst for a re-calibration of
political power away from international actors and Port-au-Prince elites.
2. Weak conditions for development. The official response of the Haitian
Government to the disaster was published in March 2010 under the title of
Plan d’action pour le relèvement et le développement d’Haı̈ti (Action Plan for
 Recovery and Development) (Gouvernement de la République d’Haı̈ti, 2010). This plan Responses to
focused on the implications of the earthquake and subsequent settlement difficulties in post-earthquake
terms of its impacts on humans, infrastructure and the environment. The problem
becomes one of reversing arrested development so that negative impacts can be Haiti
resolved through growth. Four areas of intervention are outlined:
(1) economic reconstruction though decentralized poles of economic activity,
infrastructure development and land management; 49
(2) modernization of the agriculture, manufacturing and tourism, and the
development of a formal construction sector;
(3) social development (with an emphasis on education and public health); and
(4) institutional reform of the legal system and governance structures.

This approach draws on both international disaster management and vulnerability

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approaches. It corresponds to the former in its attention to solving the immediate

problems. Root causes of vulnerability, and impediments to recovery and future
resilience, are seen as long-term impoverishment of the country, shortages of jobs and
economic opportunities, weaknesses in economic sectors and human resource
development thus are considered, as the conditions for economic development are seen
as patently insufficient (a form of vulnerability).
3. Weak governance and planning. Three plans – the Strategic Plan for National
Salvation, the Plan of Action for a New Haiti, and Haiti demain – can be roughly
grouped together, based on their call for structural reforms and improved planning as
key elements in reconstruction and recovery. The former focuses on reforms, while the
other two take a systems’ approach to planning, however all target modernization, and
social contracts for progress and prosperity.
The Strategic Plan for National Salvation was presented by retired politicians, civil
society and private sector groups. It proposes to save the country from itself. The
document blames bad politics and inefficient governments for the poor
post-earthquake situation. The country is to collectively combat “corrupt, vicious,
authoritarian and autocratic political leaders” as a means to redemption and recovery.
The plan describes “the reform and modernization of the state as a fundamental pillar
of tomorrow’s society” and, claiming to be a national consensus on fundamental
values, proposes an inter-generational social contract for progress and prosperity.
In addition to reforming government, key objectives are “development” and “progress”,
with a strong emphasis on economic growth. The cost of the plan is estimated at
$100 billion (US) over 25 years, with a call for international contributions towards the
Haitian Marshall-like plan. The heavy emphasis on solving the problem of the state
sets this approach apart from international literature on disaster recovery.
The Plan of Action for a New Haiti was produced by the Haitian community living
abroad which, following the earthquake, undertook an international effort to mobilize
Haitians professionals living abroad in support of recovery (Groupe de Réflexion et
d’action pour une Haı̈ti nouvelle, 2010). On-going effects of the disaster are, in this plan,
seen as exacerbated by the deeply rooted practice in Haiti and the aid community
of pursuing isolated and uncoordinated interventions. A comprehensive plan of
interventions was developed through extensive meetings and exchanges. The plan
proposed a partnership between those with Haitian resources within the country and
 IJDRBE abroad, promoted a systems view of inter-dependencies between various sectors, and
4,1 advocated participatory approaches to addressing local challenges.
A similar plan based on a structural revitalization of practices and institutions was
proposed by the Government of Haiti’s Inter-ministerial Committee on Territorial
Planning (CIAT) in the “Haiti Tomorrow” plan (Haiti Demain), published in March
2010 (Comité Interministériel D’aménagement Du Territoire, 2010). In the view of the
50 CIAT, the disaster was largely caused by a “spiral of environmental degeneration”
(Republique d’Haiti – CIAT, 2010, p. 23). Disaster is portrayed as an opportunity for
change in local practices, both within and outside of government; for example,
population displacement of population caused by the disaster should be exploited to
reduce the concentration of resources and power in the capital; “the redundancy of
actions” that contributed to environmental degradation and deforestation should be
avoided; and “a consensus on mutual interest” promoted. The emphasis is on
coordinated territorial planning and land management (as opposed to the state reform,
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socio-economic or cultural-moralistic aspects), with attention to regional and urban

planning, infrastructure, drainage, community buildings and public space.
4. Lack of adequate shelter. The “Plateforme des Patriotes Haı̈tiens” (PLAPH) plan
did not emphasize structural reforms and instead concentrated on the pragmatic
solutions to the pressing challenges of inadequate shelter. The plan emerged from a
local political party, which responded to the governmental plan with strong criticism;
it accused the government plan of being “incoherent” and “manipulative” and causing
“deception, shame and reservations”. The PLAPH proposed an approach focused on
projects, immediate needs, and fast recovery, with two priorities: providing sheltering
to affected people, and creating jobs.
Several international specialists and local mayors also assumed a pragmatic
approach targeted at identifying short-, medium- and long-term projects to reduce
vulnerabilities and increase urban resilience. Rather than proposing fundamental
structural reforms, emphasis was placed on projects and specific programs (housing,
infrastructure, community services, training, etc.) that were could lead to manageable,
pragmatic solutions.
Table II summarizes how the Haitian plans made legible their views of the disaster,
the reconstruction and the human settlements.
There are some commonalities across the different frames. Natural disaster, even
that causing massive displacement of human populations and destruction of the built
environment, is treated as entwined with governance failures (weak state, weak
coordination) and the historical legacies of concentrated power (spatial and economic),
impoverishment, inadequate shelter, and environmental degradation. The documents,
aside from those prepared within government, reflect a fundamental lack of confidence
in the capacity of the state in its current form to act on behalf of “a public good”, even
one as pressing as providing shelter for displaced earthquake victims, and even the
ones prepared by the government identify areas for improved state action.
More telling, however, are the differences across and omissions from the plans.
While the state and its functioning are in the limelight, the widespread and immediate need
for shelter and services in areas affected by the earthquake is not. Only in the pragmatic
approaches is shelter (together with employment) a primary focus. Instead, review of
the plans and their emphasis suggests that most of these plans are pitched at too high
a level, are too ambitious, to address these immediate needs for shelter, or indeed for
 Responses to
View of reconstruction View of human
View of the disaster process settlements post-earthquake
1. Weak state As a failure of the state Moment to recreate Improved as a
Haiti
(refounding) state institutions and consequence of
values (modern) institutions
and valuesa 51
2. Weak conditions for As the result of Moment for Improved through
development insufficient structural development, consensus regional, economic
(development and development and international social and institutional
recovery plan) partnership reformsa
3. Weak coordination As a result of Moment for a systemic Improved through
and poor planning fragmented practices view of interconnected interconnected
(salvation and reform and institutions changes planninga
plans)
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4. Inadequate shelter As a result of Moment to reduce Improved through

(PLAPH and other vulnerabilities and root vulnerabilities and manageable projects of
pragmatic causes increase resilience infrastructure, services
approaches) through access to soft and housingb Table II.
and hard resources Disaster, reconstruction
and human settlements in
Notes: aEmphasis on policy; bemphasis on the program and project levels of intervention Haiti made legible

longer-term resilience. Polarized interests – within and between each of these frames – are
apparent; potential partners are vilified in some of the documents. Efforts to scale down
interventions, to address policy and institutional reforms and the implementation of new
programs, provide possible directions forward. However, it is interesting that they are
neither linked to the expanded legitimacy and capacity of the state (as per historical
precedents documented by Scott) nor do they relate strongly to the post-disaster
reconstruction approaches dominant in the literature. Indeed, it is further important to note
that few approaches were linked explicitly to urban structures or city-level governance
mechanisms; the exceptions are the CIAT plan (with its few pages on territorial and urban
planning), and political or economic decentralization in several of the others.

(b) From policy frames to housing frames

To detail the transmittal of policy frames to specific projects and practices, we analyzed
the BBBC program, which had at its core an international competition for housing
solutions. A RFP generated over 360 proposals at the level of building and site
reconstruction, submitted by local and international, private and non-profit groups.
Analysis of the competition documents, the resulting submissions, and those selected for
merit permits assessment of how the framing of reconstruction affects specific projects.
The program documents reflect a dual framing of the challenges. The RFP stress
the importance of both:
(1) improving poor construction practices as a means to achieve resilient human
settlements; and
(2) responding to urgent needs for shelter.

For example, the program claimed to be interested in “best-practice solutions

alongside wider urban themes such as green energy, transportation and use of local
 IJDRBE materials and production”. Its emphasis on shelter pointed to the development of
4,1 high-design: “The approach . . . will be holistic, focusing on home designs,
incorporation of green technologies and the development of model communities”.
At the same time, the urgency of shelter delivery was a strong message in the RFP:
With the rainy season on-going, a key priority for the Haitian government and its
international relief partners is to relocate those sheltering in camps to transitional forms of
52 shelter prior to permanent housing. Transitioning displaced camp residents presents not only
a huge logistical challenge but also a unique opportunity to make vital advancements to
Haiti’s social and economic infrastructure.
A prototype of selected entries had to be built in a housing exhibition, located on the
outskirts of Port-au-Prince. According to the RFP the exhibition was to be:
[. . .] a planned settlement for 125 families in Port-au-Prince that will define a template for
rebuilding housing developments and as a road map for the inclusion of renewable energy,
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education, culture and livelihoods.

Performance specifications placed emphasis on shelter for domestic activities.
Specifications were for prefabricated or easy-to-erect units (an even narrower option of
housing solutions). They included such elements as: transportation (specifying the
option of prefabricated elements), codes (with specific reference to disaster-resistance),
production (a direct reference to manufacturing), durability, cost and floor area
(a maximum cost of $5,000 and an area of 35 m2 were established), and culture. About
70 prototypes were chosen and by mid-June, about 60 were on site, preparing for the
official opening at the end of July.
Considering the RFP specifications for easy-to-erect sheltering solutions, it is not
surprising that a large number of awarded projects opted for high-tech designs of
independent units. For the most part, units were quite costly and relied on materials
unavailable in Haiti. For example, commended projects included: a 40 m2 unit built of
foam panels and aluminum post and beams ($43,000); “the Lego House,” a 14 m2 shelter
(without washroom and kitchen) made of plastic panels ($7,500); “the plastic house”,
a 45 m2 unit built with hollow panels of PVC ($20,000); the “Straw house”: a 60 m2 unit
built with panels of compressed straw and steel posts and beams ($20,000); and the
“Foam house”, built of ten-inch thick polystyrene wall panels fitted into a steel frame.
Low-tech solutions included a house made of wood posts and panels, which cost about
$25,000, and a steel-frame house with cement panels.
Both high- and low-tech proposals failed to provide a comprehensive “template for
housing developments” or a holistic approach to the design of human settlements,
as called for in the RFP. Designs emphasized the dwelling over other aspects of
settlement, such as the potential for income-generation (home-based shops, workshops,
retail, etc.) public and collective space, infrastructure, services and economic activities
incremental construction, desired urban density, or social development. In so
emphasizing, the proposals responded to some aspects of the RFP but neglected best
practices well-known in the field of post-disaster reconstruction, for instance, the need
to address: subsidies and financing (Ferguson and Navarrete, 2008; Gilbert, 2004),
infrastructure development (Huchzermeyer, 2001; Choguill, 2007), optimization of
public and transit services (Choguill, 2007; Zanetta, 2001), potential for income
generation activities (Lizarralde et al., 2009), and participation of stakeholders
(Lizarralde, 2010; Barenstein et al., 2010).
 Improving construction techniques is a crucial component in improving the Responses to
resilience of settlements to disasters, but these proposals did not address whether the post-earthquake
techniques could be used easily and would function well in Haitian cities. In the BBC
program, the dual emphasis on innovative “best practice” design and needs for shelter, Haiti
coupled with design specifications biased towards the former, meant that the “frame”
ended up leading to costly solutions inappropriate to the shelter needs of uprooted
Haitians. Even the local architectural firms, who opted for traditional cinderblock and 53
concrete technologies, neglected a holistic response to the housing challenge.

5. Conclusion: can post-disaster recovery be framed to promote resiliency?

In this article, we built upon three observations about the power and importance of
representations of disasters, reconstruction and human settlements. We drew
particularly on Scott’s notion of “legibility” to ask how disaster response plans
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represent and simplify complex urban realities and how those representations could
create conditions for more (and less) resiliency.
The empirical study explores how plans and proposals advance particular
conceptions of the causes of the disaster, the type of reconstruction to be pursued, and
measures necessary to be taken to improve resilience to future shocks, in other words,
a definition of the problem, the solutions, and means to achieve them. Despite the
simple language, the implications of such acts are profound. In simplifying complex
dynamics, a plan, proposal or project addresses and emphasizes some social, political,
economic and environmental relations, and leaves others out. Portrayal of a “crisis”
and “desired and appropriate responses” may entail new roles for the private sector,
the weakening or strengthening of specific elements of the state apparatus, expanded
powers for international bodies within national or local boundaries, and, indeed,
propagation of specific images – of the rescuers, the victim, the deserving, the venal,
etc. – that have long-term implications for all involved.
The political expediency of policy framing is apparent in the analysis of the Haitian
plans, in ways that are not clear in the international literature. Different views were
created by stakeholders currently in power (the developmental frame), stakeholders
susceptible to gain or regain power (the state frame), and stakeholders interested in
playing an active role in the process without necessary being in power (the pragmatic
planning frame). This is certainly not the first time that disasters are used in politics or
by those in power to lead nation-wide policy making (Klein, 2007; (The) Economist,
2011). However, the analysis suggests that – in a country of widespread destruction
that went beyond the capital city itself – stakeholders represented the disaster, the
reconstruction challenges, and human settlements objectives according to views that
responded to their own position, regardless of the limits of municipal governance.
Discussion here turns to how the framing of disaster and recovery both in Haiti and the
international literature – the ways in which some relations and structures are made legible
and others obscured – relates to the resilience of cities. Resilience – including in urban areas
– is affected by the actions and inactions of numerous players. The role of local government
may be especially important, as discussed in other articles of this issue; it is usually the level
of government that comes face-to-face with citizen demands most frequently, and often local
officials and staff are particularly aware of community needs and dynamics.
Our review of the Haitian plans suggests an addendum to such observations:
resilience with respect to the three key components analyzed (disaster, reconstruction,
 IJDRBE and human settlements) is not necessarily built at the municipal or urban level.
4,1 The Haitian plans framed the difficulties as extending beyond the level of communities
or cities, and cited local supra-local measures, indeed, even supra-national ones, as
needed for recovery and long-term resilience. Given Haiti’s poverty and historical
legacies, and their perpetuation at both local and international levels, the focus on
national and international dimensions of contemporary challenges may well be crucial.
54 At the same time, it may well be that the potential of the local – whether of local
government or alliances of local residents – is one of the arenas that has been
obscured. In contrast to the international literature on disasters and recovery, all of
which outlined an important role for local actors, only a few of the Haitian plans did so.
Attention to the way that our conceptions frame our actions may seem tangential to
the discussions of how to construct more resilient cities, especially for areas in which
“natural disasters” occur with devastating effects. Our suspicion, in putting forward this
exploratory material, is that international attention could productively be directed to
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how disasters and resilience are framed at a local level. Processes of disaster response
make sense of and transform the world in particular ways. Planners, policy-makers and
experts do more than “objectively” analyze disasters, their causes and the appropriate
responses. They act as agents, shaping disaster and disaster preparedness responses
through the visions of the world that they create. The different frames at the
international level – and the corresponding shifts in disaster and preparedness
programming – are illustrative of this agency. The different frames apparent in the
Haitian plans and competition further point to the political import of such dynamics,
with effects at all levels: discursive (who or what is blamed, vilified or extolled),
organizational (what is reformed, strengthened or abolished), and material (what
resources are accorded to what programs, places or groups). These frames may leave out
– or make illegible – other elements (the local government, the role of nation-building
and centralized power, the potential of local groups, or the potential negative effects of
international NGOs, all points present in the academic literature on Haiti).
Equally importantly, these frames outline the desired future – a return to the past,
a resolution of past inequalities, a nation founded on local values – that will be
pursued. This desired future may be one in which resilient cities are promoted, in which
people can live in pleasant, just and productive environments, but it is by no means
certain. It is thus important to understand the ways in which disasters, reconstruction,
and the human settlements are made legible, and how those ideas shape reconstruction
and resilience.

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About the authors 57

Lisa Bornstein teaches Planning and International Development at McGill University and directs
a community-university alliance researching mega-projects in North America. She has worked as
an NGO consultant, planner and researcher in Latin America and Southern Africa. She has
published on community development, urban planning, poverty, donor-NGO relations,
governance, conflict, and dynamics of cities in the global economy.
Gonzalo Lizarralde is a Professor at the School of Architecture of Université de Montréal. He
has long experience in consulting for architecture and construction projects and has published
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important research in the fields of low-cost housing and project management. He has taught at
the University of Cape Town (South Africa); McGill University, Université de Montréal, and
Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). He conducted Post Doctorate research in the Department of
Construction Economics and Management of the University of Cape Town. He is the Director of
the IF Research Group (grif) of Université de Montréal, which studies the processes related to the
planning and development of construction projects. He is the co-author of the book Rebuilding
After Disasters: From Emergency to Sustainabiity. Gonzalo Lizarralde is the corresponding
author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Kevin A. Gould is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and
Environment at Concordia University. He completed his PhD at the University of British
Columbia in 2009. His dissertation analyzes the material and ideological production of a rural
land market in contemporary Guatemala. He has broad research interests in critical development
studies, political ecology, and economic geography. His current work examines how race, nature,
and markets are produced through economic development policies.
Colin Davidson is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture, founder of the programs installation
and management of development projects (University of Montreal), and founder of the Research
Group IFgrif. He is a specialist in the field of innovation and technology transfer. His research
interests also include communication in the construction sector, and in particular on the use of
knowledge from research. After a career in Britain, Italy and the USA, he joined the Faculty in
1968 (he was Dean of the Faculty from 1975 to 1985). He has also taught in the USA (including
Harvard and Washington University), Brazil (at the University of Rio Grande do Sul) and Italy
(University Institute of Architecture of Venice). He holds a Master’s of Architecture from MIT.
He was a member of the IBC from 1972 to 2010 and is recipient of “Distinguished Professor”
of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

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