Presentation short abstract

Based on qualitative research, this paper investigates the emergence of a political ecology of reconstruction after the Valencia climate disaster in 2024. It examines how community initiatives challenge state-capital dominance in reconstruction and promote democratic and ecological alternatives.

Presentation long abstract

In late October 2024, a sudden flood turned Valencia’s streets into torrents that devastated the predominantly low-income western districts, submerging thousands of buildings and causing 230 deaths. It was the most severe climate disaster in recent European history and a major focusing event (Giordono et al. 2020) that exposed contradictions in climate governance and intensified conflict among political actors (Tierney 2007).

Disasters often function as “windows of opportunity” through which state–capital alliances consolidate power and expand capitalist interests. The concepts of shock economy and disaster capitalism (Klein 2007) capture how extreme events create new spaces for accumulation and profit, particularly during reconstruction (Schuller and Maldonado 2016; Keucheyan 2019; Imperiale and Vanclay 2020). Yet, while such trajectories have frequently been contested, they have rarely produced large-scale alternative reconstruction processes.

Valencia offers a noteworthy exception. In the aftermath of the DANA, local communities mobilised not only to challenge top-down emergency and reconstruction management but also to articulate bottom-up responses grounded in political ecology principle. Based on qualitative research, this contribution examines reconstruction as a contested political field by exploring aims, approaches and practices of community-led initiatives organised through the Comitès Locals d’Emergència i Reconstrucciò (CLER). These committees seek to reclaim territorial decision-making power and redefine reconstruction priorities around ecological and democratic principles rather than technocratic or market-driven criteria.

This research investigates how community-driven reconstruction can generate trajectories toward transformative post-disaster futures, positioning the Valencia case at the crossroads of political ecology and disaster sociology.