Normalising spatial vulnerability in the era of climate crisis? Private property, informality, and post-disaster planning in peri-urban east Attica/Greece

Abstract

This paper focuses on the peri-urban space of east Attica and aims to theorise the politics of recovery planning following the wildfire of 23 July 2018, showing the crucial interrelations between vulnerability, space and land development processes in an era of climate crisis. Certain processes of land development increase vulnerability, creating a greater risk of disasters. Through critical discourse and content analysis, we trace the genealogy of peri-urban land development trends in Greece, and explore connections with contemporary theoretical debates, focussing on the burnt area of east Attica as a paradigmatic case study. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding dimensions beyond, beside, outside or even within recovery policies and planning, such as land ownership, private property, formal and informal practices and institutional adaptations during climate crisis. Considering particular land development processes as an inherent and integral part of spatial vulnerability regimes, we argue that, insofar as they maintain and reproduce the factors that produce and reproduce it, post-disaster recovery policies and planning may actually normalise spatial vulnerability, thus leading to future disasters.