disaster capitalismn.
/dᵻˌzɑːstə ˈkapᵻtl̩ɪz(ə)m/, /dᵻˌzɑːstə ˈkapᵻtəlɪz(ə)m/, /dᵻˌzastə ˈkapᵻtl̩ɪz(ə)m/, /dᵻˌzastə ˈkapᵻtəlɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /dəˌzæstər ˈkæpədlˌɪzəm/ The exploitation of natural or man-made disasters (such as catastrophic weather events, war, epidemics, etc.) in service of capitalist interests; the practice of using unstable social, political, and economic situations to impose or benefit from deregulation, the privatization of public assets, etc.
ΚΠ
2005 N. Klein Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Nation (N.Y.) 2 May 9/2 The rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering.
2015 Esquire Sept. 187/2 It was a mirror in which you could see recovery and rebirth, or disaster capitalism at its most ruthless, depending on which end of the power continuum you found yourself on.
2020 Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) (Nexis) 14 Aug. ‘Disaster capitalism’ is not a new concept. By capitalising on the public fear of ‘rising’ crime and stoking the public sentiment for harsher and longer prison sentences, the underpinnings for a prison-industrial complex are in place.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.2005