[site fights] Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West

Moved from Great Tohoku Revival, 2011-7-3

Shortly after the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami precipitated the nuclear crisis unfolding in Fukushima, Daniel Aldrich was quoted in The New York Times. Immediately after reading that article, I ordered Prof. Aldrich's book Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West. With even a casual glance through this book, it is clear that it is must reading for anyone planning to participate in Tohoku's revival.







For his Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University, Daniel Aldrich, currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University, analyzed siting decisions for 500 Japanese "public bads": nuclear power plants, airports and dams. Analyzing these decisions from the perspective of the kinds of policy tools used to overcome local opposition and the strength of local civil society, Prof. Aldrich found that localities with weaker civil society were dealt coercive measures while stronger civil society lead to softer incentive measures.



Prof. Aldrich's data set includes the siting of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants.



As I work through this book, I will post comments and notes in this blog. Titles of these posts will begin with the tag [site fights].



Immediately before reading this book, I read Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, about how new social networking tools are making civil organization much easier. Prof. Aldrich did his research between 2001 and 2003 and covered siting decisions that took place between 1955 and 1995, before these new tools. This will lend an interesting perspective when reading Site Fights.