Copyright (c) 2013 Purdue University All rights reserved. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs Recent documents in Political Science Faculty Publications en-us Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:05:42 PST 3600 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/5 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/5 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:01:34 PST 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 negative externalities, especially to those already on the periphery of society. In these villages, high levels of social capital reduced barriers to collective action for members of the uur panchayats (hamlet councils) and parish councils, speeding up their recovery and connecting them to aid organizations, but at the same time reinforced obstacles to recovery for women, Dalits, migrants, and Muslims. These localized findings have important implications for academic studies of social capital and policy formation for future disasters and recovery schemes.

]]> Daniel P. Aldrich http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/4 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/4 Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:29:26 PDT This is the first four chapters of a very basic description of Exploratory Data Analysis techniques. It contains treatments of Univariate and Bivariate techniques. It contains a chapter on each set of techniques and it contains a chapter applying those techniques to various sets of empirical data. These latter chapters illustrate the value of these techniques for understanding data.

]]> Eric Waltenburg et al. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/3 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/3 Thu, 06 May 2010 05:43:01 PDT 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 can help us understand why some neighborhoods in cities like Kobe, Japan, Tamil Nadu, India, and New Orleans, Louisiana displayed resilience while others stagnated. Social capital – the engine for recovery - can be deepened both through local initiatives and interventions from foreign agencies.

]]> Daniel P. Aldrich http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/2 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/2 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:56:37 PDT While a large literature exists on the siting of controversial facilities, few theories about spatial location have been tested on large samples. Using a new dataset from Japan, this paper demonstrates that state agencies choose localities judged weakest in local civil society as host communities for controversial projects. In some cases, powerful politicians deliberately seek to have facilities such as nuclear power plants, dams and airports placed in their home constituency. This paper then explores new territory: how demographic, political and civil society factors impact the outcomes of siting attempts. It finds that the strength of local civil society impacts the probability that a proposed project will come to fruition; the greater the concentration of local civil society, the less likely state-planned projects will be completed.

]]> Daniel P. Aldrich http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/1 http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/pspubs/1 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:56:36 PDT To meet the dire need for housing following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials created lists of potential sites for trailer parks. We analyze approved sites to track which factors were linked with larger (or smaller) numbers of trailers and trailer sites per zip code block. Areas which displayed greater levels of social capital, as evidenced by voluntaristic activities such as voting, were slated for fewer trailers, control- ling for race, income, education, flood damage, and other relevant factors. Civil society worked simultaneously to bring citizens together while mobilizing them against the threat of trailer parks in their backyards.

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