After Katrina: Racial Regimes and Human Development Barriers in the Gulf Coast Region

Significant scholarly attention has focused on rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Gulf coast of several Alabama and Mississippi communities have received comparatively less attention. We seek to narrow this gap. The theoretical premise of this article is that the neoliberal framework for governance in the Gulf Coast region, principally those states hardest hit by Hurricanes Katrina—including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama—innately configure the life opportunity structures among their citizens in ways that maintain concentric hierarchies of race, class, and gender. This article provides a theoretical framework and brings into focus the similarities existing among recovery and rebuilding activities along the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Gulf coasts. Also, the article offers recommendations for a plan that views these three states collectively and comprehensively for reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region.