What Is a Victim? State Legibility in the Context of Disasters

Political scientist James C. Scott has revealed how the certainty with which states attempt to manage the social according to defined categories of observation has dynamics and consequences that sometimes produce state blindness (Scott, 1995; 1998). These projects of "state legibility" are simplifications that serve as tools for the modern state. State officials generate standardized categories or labels, which make their management easier but also run the risk of hindering it. While for the state, the categories used often appear rational and objective, there is no single way in which states can observe the social. The categories used, far from being objective, respond to specific policies and administrative cultures. In the case of reconstruction processes, the category of "victimized" becomes very relevant in public policies since it allows access, or not, to a series of recovery and reconstruction benefits. Likewise, it is important for the state to achieve a definition of victim that is legitimate in the eyes of society, precisely because of the large amount of resources that are channeled as a result of it. In this article, I explore the case of Chile, a country historically used to earthquake, that has build institutions around this threat. Climate change, however, has posed new challenges to the state, and the ways it uses to see, understand and manage disaster victims. Ten years of public policy relating post disaster recovery efforts are analyzed and 20 interviews were made to understand state legibility efforts in the context of disaster recovery.