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Political Science

Daniel P Aldrich

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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies

First Steps Towards Hearts And Minds? Usaid’S Countering Violent Extremism Policies In Africa, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2013

First Steps Towards Hearts And Minds? Usaid’S Countering Violent Extremism Policies In Africa, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

The United States government has adopted new approaches to counter violent extremist organizations around the world. “Soft security” and development programs include focused educational training for groups vulnerable to terrorist recruitment, norm messaging through local radio programming, and job creation in rural communities. This article evaluates the effectiveness of one set of these multi-vectored, community-level programs through data from 200 respondents in two similar, neighboring towns in northern Mali, Africa. The data show that residents in Timbuktu who were exposed to the programming for up to five years displayed measurably altered civic behavior and listening patterns in comparison with their …

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Response To My Critics, Daniel P. Aldrich Feb 2013

Response To My Critics, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

This article responds to the questions and criticisms raised by six reviewers about my book Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery. I focus on the distinctions between social capital types (bonding, bridging, and linking), the difficulties in pinning down widely accepted proxies for social capital, the double edged nature of social networks, race, class, and ethnicity, and public policies which can deepen reservoirs of social capital. Given the ubiquitous nature of disasters and society’s need to move beyond technical and engineering-based responses to crisis, this article continues an important dialogue on the role of human factors in disaster management …

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A Normal Accident Or A Sea-Change? Nuclear Host Communities Respond To The 3/11 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich Jan 2013

A Normal Accident Or A Sea-Change? Nuclear Host Communities Respond To The 3/11 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

While 3/11 has altered energy policies around the world, insufficient attention has focused on reactions from local nuclear power plant host communities and their neighbors throughout Japan. Using site visits to such towns, interviews with relevant actors, and secondary and tertiary literature, this article investigates the community crisis management strategies of two types of cities, towns, and villages: thosewhich have nuclear plants directly in their backyards and neighboring cities further away (within a 30 mile radius). Responses to the disaster have varied with distance to nuclear facilities but in a way contrary to the standard theories based on the concept …

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Norm Change In Africa – An Evaluation, Daniel P. Aldrich Jan 2013

Norm Change In Africa – An Evaluation, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

This article (posted to the Extremis Project website) summarizes the work I carried out for the article “Radio as the Voice of God: Peace and Tolerance Radio Programming’s Impact on Norms." In it I discuss how I used the responses from 1000 residents of Chad, Mali, and Niger to evaluate countering violent extremism (CVE) programming undertaken by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Taking The High Ground: Fema Trailer Siting After Hurricane Katrina, Daniel P. Aldrich, Kevin Crook Dec 2012

Taking The High Ground: Fema Trailer Siting After Hurricane Katrina, Daniel P. Aldrich, Kevin Crook

Daniel P Aldrich

Using data on more than 300 census blocks from across New Orleans, Louisiana, this article investigates two steps in the placement of temporary housing after Hurricane Katrina. First, the authors seek to understand the factors that determined whether census blocks were selected for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers. Then, in light of the widespread resistance to the trailers, they focus on variables that influenced whether trailers were successfully placed on those sites. Despite past research arguing that race, collective action potential, and political factors are the primary determinants of facility placement and the success or failure of the attempt, …

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Radio As The Voice Of God: Peace And Tolerance Radio Programming’S Impact On Norms, Daniel P. Aldrich Nov 2012

Radio As The Voice Of God: Peace And Tolerance Radio Programming’S Impact On Norms, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Observers have argued that radio programming can alter norms, especially through hate radio designed to increase animosity between groups. This article tests whether or not radio programming under the countering violent extremism (CVE) policy framework can reduce potential conflict and increase civic engagement and positive views of foreign nations. Data from surveys of more than 1,000 respondents in Mali, Chad, and Niger illuminate the ways in which peace and tolerance programming changed perspectives and altered behavior in statistically significant ways. Results show that individuals exposed to multi-level U.S. government programming were more likely to listen to peace and tolerance radio. …

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Building Resilience: Social Capital In Post-Disaster Recovery, Daniel Aldrich Aug 2012

Building Resilience: Social Capital In Post-Disaster Recovery, Daniel Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Each year, natural disasters threaten the strength and stability of communities worldwide. Yet responses to the challenges of recovery vary greatly and in ways that aren’t explained by the magnitude of the catastrophe or the amount of aid provided by national governments or the international community. The difference between resilience and disrepair, as Daniel P. Aldrich shows, lies in the depth of communities’ social capital. Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich …

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The Politics Of Natural Disasters (Pre-Print), Daniel P. Aldrich May 2012

The Politics Of Natural Disasters (Pre-Print), Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Political scientists, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, economists, and historians have studied disaster recovery, best practices in disaster response, the role of the government in rebuilding, and so forth. This annotated bibliography illuminates representative examples of the interdisciplinary work in this vast academic subfield.

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Mightier Than The Sword: Social Science And Development In Countering Violent Extremism, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2011

Mightier Than The Sword: Social Science And Development In Countering Violent Extremism, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Countering terrorism through social science-based development assistance is a new policy model that moves beyond traditional methods based on the application of military force, public diplomacy, pressure to democratize, or broad-based poverty alleviation. The core elements of this framework for countering violent extremism (CVE) involve 1) pushing U.S. military responses “downstream” and using them sparingly, 2) reducing marginalization of peripheral communities and encouraging re-integration, 3) providing locally based counter-narratives to those of violent extremist organizations, and 4) increasing the legitimacy and capacity of partner governments.

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Social, Not Physical, Infrastructure: The Critical Role Of Civil Society After The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2011

Social, Not Physical, Infrastructure: The Critical Role Of Civil Society After The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Despite the tremendous destruction wrought by catastrophes, social science holds few quantitative assessments of explanations for the rate of recovery. This article illuminates four factors—damage, population density, human capital, and economic capital—that are thought to explain the variation in the pace of population recovery following disaster; it also explores the popular but relatively untested factor of social capital. Using time-series, cross-sectional models and propensity score matching, it tests these approaches using new data from the rebuilding of 39 neighborhoods in Tokyo after its 1923 earthquake. Social capital, more than earthquake damage, population density, human capital, or economic capital, best predicts …

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Post-Crisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Top-Down Directives To Bottom-Up Activism, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2011

Post-Crisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Top-Down Directives To Bottom-Up Activism, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Over the past fifty years, Japan has developed one of the most advanced commercial nuclear power programs in the world. This is largely due to the government’s broad repertoire of policy instruments that have helped further its nuclear power goals. These top-down directives have resulted in the construction of 54 plants and at least the appearance of widespread support for nuclear power. By the 1990s, however, this carefully cultivated public support was beginning to break apart. And following the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 and resulting nuclear crisis in the Fukushima nuclear complex, the political and social landscape for …

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Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society And Nuclear Power In Japan, Daniel P. Aldrich, Martin Dusinberre Jul 2011

Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society And Nuclear Power In Japan, Daniel P. Aldrich, Martin Dusinberre

Daniel P Aldrich

This article seeks to explain how, given Japan’s “nuclear allergy” following World War II, a small coastal town not far from Hiroshima volunteered to host a nuclear power plant in the early 1980s. Where standard explanations of conten- tious nuclear power siting decisions have focused on the regional power utilities and the central government, this paper instead examines the importance of historical change and civil society at a local level. Using a microhistorical approach based on interviews and archival materials, and framing our discussion with a popular Japanese television show known as Hatoko’s Sea, we illustrate the agency of municipal …

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The Externalities Of Strong Social Capital: Post-Tsunami Recovery In Southeast India, Daniel P. Aldrich Mar 2011

The Externalities Of Strong Social Capital: Post-Tsunami Recovery In Southeast India, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Much research has implied that social capital functions as an unqualified “public good,” enhancing governance, economic performance, and quality of life (Coleman 1988; Cohen and Arato 1992; Putnam 1993; Cohen and Rogers 1995). Scholars of disaster (Nakagawa and Shaw 2004; Adger et al. 2005; Dynes 2005; Tatsuki 2008) have extended this concept to posit that social capital provides nonexcludable benefits to whole communities after major crises. Using qualitative methods to analyze data from villages in Tamil Nadu, India following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, this paper demonstrates that high levels of social capital simultaneously provided strong benefits and equally strong …

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Japanese Liberal Democratic Party Support And The Gender Gap: A New Approach, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2010

Japanese Liberal Democratic Party Support And The Gender Gap: A New Approach, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Scholars have argued that there is a broad gender gap in support for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan. We uncover strong evidence that age, rather than gender, along with rural or urban location, serves as the most critical determinant of party support. Through logistic regression, propensity score matching and simulation techniques applied to four large-scale datasets; we demonstrate that age effects are consistent but slowly diminishing across cohorts between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. As Japanese women and men age, they come to support the LDP at similar rates controlling for education, income and other demographic …

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Between Market And State: Directions In Social Science Research On Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich Nov 2010

Between Market And State: Directions In Social Science Research On Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

In this extended review, I discuss three recent books on disaster: Governing after Crisis: The Politics of Investigation, Accountability, and Learning edited by Arjen Boin, Allan McConnell, and Paul ‘T Hart, Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response , edited by Howard Kunreuther and Micheel Useem, and The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters by Charles Perrow. All three books invoke the market and state as core forces at work in mitigation and disaster recovery, overlooking the critical role of social capital.

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The Power Of People: Social Capital’S Role In Recovery From The 1995 Kobe Earthquake, Daniel P. Aldrich Jul 2010

The Power Of People: Social Capital’S Role In Recovery From The 1995 Kobe Earthquake, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Despite the regularity of disasters, social science has only begun to generate replicable knowledge about the factors which facilitate post-crisis recovery. Building on the broad variation in recovery rates within disaster-affected cities, I investigate the ability of Kobe’s nine wards to repopulate after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan. This article uses case studies of neighborhoods in Kobe alongside new time-series, cross-sectional data set to test five variables thought to influence recovery along with the relatively untested factor of social capital. Controlling for damage, population density, economic conditions, inequality and other variables thought important in past research, social capital proves …

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Fixing Recovery: Social Capital In Post-Crisis Resilience, Daniel P. Aldrich May 2010

Fixing Recovery: Social Capital In Post-Crisis Resilience, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Disasters remain among the most critical events which impact residents and their neighborhoods; they have killed far more individuals than high salience issues such as terrorism. Unfortunately, disaster recovery programs run by the United States and foreign governments have not been updated to reflect a new understanding of the essential nature of social capital and networks. I call for a re-orientation of disaster preparedness and recovery programs at all levels away from the standard fixes focused on physical infrastructure towards ones targeting social infrastructure. The reservoirs of social capital and the trust (or lack thereof) between citizens in disaster-affected communities …

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Separate And Unequal: Post-Tsunami Aid Distribution In Southern India, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2009

Separate And Unequal: Post-Tsunami Aid Distribution In Southern India, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Objective. Disasters are a regular occurrence throughout the world. Whether all eligible victims of a catastrophe receive similar amounts of aid from governments and donors following a crisis remains an open question. Methods. I use data on 62 similarly damaged inland fishing villages in five districts of southeastern India following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to measure the causal influence of caste, location, wealth, and bridging social capital on the receipt of aid. Using two-limit tobit and negative binomial models, I investigate the factors that influence the time spent in refugee camps, receipt of an initial aid packet, and receipt …

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