Modest but critical: how we overlook social infrastructure at our peril

Much of our policy process focuses on the role of physical infrastructure, that is, structures that hope to mitigate the impact of shocks and disasters such as floods, terrorism, and crime. But a growing body of evidence suggests that social infrastructure - the places and spaces that build and maintain connections, such as libraries, parks, and pubs - hold greater potential to blunt the impact of such events. Using qualitative and quantitative evidence from cases around the world, Daniel pushes us to appreciate how the modest and often underappreciated field of social infrastructure should be front and center as we confront wicked problems.

About the speaker

An award winning author, Daniel Aldrich has published five books including Building Resilience and Black Wave, more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, and written op-eds for the New York Times, CNN, HuffPost, and many other media outlets. He has spent more than 5 years in India, Japan, and Africa carrying out fieldwork and his work has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Abe Foundation, the Rasmussen Foundation, and the Japan Foundation, among other institutions. In 2021 he was Klein Lecturer at Northeastern University.

COVID protocols

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This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: Four hands in interlocking grip by truthseeker08 from pixabay (free to use under pixabay licence)