There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
'Building back better' (BBB) has become one of the most common expressions in disaster
risk reduction. Disasters offer an opportunity to encourage improvements not only
in the structural safety of buildings and infrastructure, but also in addressing structural
inequalities and injustice. Consequently, they are an opportunity to make things 'better'.
However, in the context of neoliberalism, the definition of 'better' does not always
mean 'good for all'. We argue here that BBB allows for widely varied definitions of
what is and what is not a risk, who is and is not responsible, and what forms of action
are to be taken in response to these dangers. This serves as a designation for capacity
to make 'better', but not actively change, social and political systems that initially
create risk. Disasters and its terminology, therefore, are not ideologically neutral
and should thus be deliberately unpacked and critically evaluated rather than accepted
unquestioned.