The politics of time in disasters: disputes over reparations in the resettlement of the community in Paracatu de Baixo

Abstract

The specialized literature highlights the disjunction between the bureaucratic timing of institutional responses to disasters and the duration of the established social crisis. The bursting of the Fundão Dam in Mariana, in the state of Minas Gerais, does not escape this dynamic. In this article, we seek to examine how the institutional timing for reparation has been enacted and how it has engendered new correlations of strength. Thus, we investigate the negotiations regarding the resettlement of the community in Paracatu de Baixo. The objective is to problematize how the “politics of time” operate within the measures for reparation.