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Although there has been a series of devastating natural disasters since December 2004 – from Hurricane Katrina to the 2010 floods in Pakistan – the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami remains the most significant in human history in terms of the number of communities affected and the size of the global response. Yet interest in the lessons of tsunami recovery has faded and there is little evidence to suggest that the global aid ‘industry’ has learnt very much from that experience in terms of moving from relief to long-term social recovery. This paper is based on an intensive four-year study conducted across five local areas of Sri Lanka and India, and presents a new way of thinking about the transitions from short-term relief to long-term social recovery; a more ‘deliberative strategy’. It demonstrates why a community development approach to disaster recovery has more chance than ‘asset replacement’ for delivering on the promise of ‘build back better’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]