Violence, human insecurity, and the challenge of rebuilding haiti: A study of a shantytown in port-au-prince

Abstract

This article uses a set of case histories to describe the physical and social terrain of violence in Cité Soleil, Haiti, before and after the January 2010 earthquake. Employing empirical data, it aims to interrogate our standard categorization and analysis of violence and of community responses to violence. The study is guided by the practical questions of how individuals and groups navigate and respond to the ever-changing configurations of violence in their neighborhoods. This violence is considered both as specific to Haiti in its details and as an exemplar of a general problem that afflicts nations that are marginal to, and marginalized by, current processes of globalization.