In the 1980s, the Haitian economy was subordinated within global capitalism through a dual strategy centered on assembly plants in the cities and laissez-faire agricultural policies. Today this strategy is back in the form of a "reconstruction" plan.
Argues that neoliberalism carries out its agenda of privatization through public spaces that are never fully dismantled. Draws on empirical research into spaces that exemplify the usefulness of our reading of neoliberal privatization, including aspects of post-Katrina New Orleans and a more thorough case study of a pre- and post-earthquake Haiti and its highly privatized education system.