We Have to Talk About Stripping

What do we call it when marginalized communities’ assets are unseen, undervalued and even destroyed through projects undertaken for the so-called public good?

The predominant narrative calls it wealth stripping. But it’s not just financial assets that are often drained from communities that can least afford it, as part of major development or public good projects or in response to climate emergencies.

In her post on Medium, FFI Founder and CEO Katya Fels Smyth shares a new name for an enduring phenomenon: wellbeing stripping. Because the assets that matter to people are broader, deeper and less transactional than money and financial wealth. And without a name, it’s too easy for power to dismiss or de-legitimize the harms and the repair.

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