Deconstructing Reconstruction in Post-tsunami Aceh: Governmentality, Displacement and Politics

Abstract

Rolled out as a solution to the problem of displacement in the new post-tsunami context of sudden natural disaster and unprecedented international humanitarian assistance, so-called “barracks camps”, it is argued here, must be understood against the backdrop of pre-tsunami militarized conflict, internal displacement, forced relocation and involuntary return. However, this analysis also shows that, once introduced, barracks camps also emerged as (contested) sites for the further elaboration of the problem of displacement in the wider context of the far-reaching transformations underway in post-tsunami Aceh. That is, the materialization of barracks as a preferred mode of governmentality of displacement in post-tsunami Aceh anticipated the (in this context novel) institutionalization of (international) humanitarian needs assessments and aid delivery targeting such camp-like relocation complexes. In this way, the barracks camps also contributed to the making of new experiences of displacement, which, in turn, came to shape the orientation and practice of barracks populations. As such populations have mobilized in collective protest, this article seeks to show, they have also rendered visible the political effects of the very governmentality that has formed such an integral part of the conceptualization and implementation of the reconstruction of displaced communities in post-tsunami Aceh.