Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster

Why it’s on the list: A field study of who actually rebuilds after a catastrophe, from interviews in New Orleans after Katrina and New York–New Jersey after Sandy: small business owners act as first responders, and reopening a store signals to neighbours that coming back is rational.

Where I heard about it

• Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, under Evolution of Institutions and Public Administration, March 2026, as the empirical case that recovery and order are often produced by people on the ground rather than administered from above. Full transcription: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

About this edition

The authors find that the entrepreneurs who reopen first are typically motivated by attachment to the place rather than by the expected return.

Connections

• Commons — collective recovery as a shared-resource problem.
• Institutions — the informal arrangements that carry a recovery.
• Entrepreneurship — business owners acting as first responders.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.