Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The Conclusion provides a synoptic comparative account of the book’s findings, arguments, and conclusions. The focus is what an analysis of local civics politics lends to an understanding of risk ...
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The Conclusion provides a synoptic comparative account of the book’s findings, arguments, and conclusions. The focus is what an analysis of local civics politics lends to an understanding of risk disputes. Importantly, the Conclusion, in focusing on the civic politics of risk, shows that common political rhetoric(s) such as claims to democracy, due process, progress, and justice can mean very different things in different civic contexts that hold considerable consequence for understanding what is and is not an acceptable risk. The same terms can mean very different things given social, historical, and material legacies and the civics and discourse that locally predominate. The Conclusion also reiterates the contribution that Community at Risk makes to an impressive stock of knowledge concerning risk management, perception, and dispute, as well as civic politics, organization, and community studies. The Conclusion’s intervention is, however, equal parts new findings and synthesis.Less
The Conclusion provides a synoptic comparative account of the book’s findings, arguments, and conclusions. The focus is what an analysis of local civics politics lends to an understanding of risk disputes. Importantly, the Conclusion, in focusing on the civic politics of risk, shows that common political rhetoric(s) such as claims to democracy, due process, progress, and justice can mean very different things in different civic contexts that hold considerable consequence for understanding what is and is not an acceptable risk. The same terms can mean very different things given social, historical, and material legacies and the civics and discourse that locally predominate. The Conclusion also reiterates the contribution that Community at Risk makes to an impressive stock of knowledge concerning risk management, perception, and dispute, as well as civic politics, organization, and community studies. The Conclusion’s intervention is, however, equal parts new findings and synthesis.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The anthrax attacks of 2001 provoked deep concern and urgency among U.S. security elites regarding bioterrorism. Coming after 9/11 and followed by the successive menace of West Nile virus, SARS, ...
More
The anthrax attacks of 2001 provoked deep concern and urgency among U.S. security elites regarding bioterrorism. Coming after 9/11 and followed by the successive menace of West Nile virus, SARS, avian influenza, and most recently Ebola these events prompted the federal government to pursue an aggressive new biodefense agenda. Even given the purported menace of bio-catastrophe, however, the new federal risk management plans stirred controversy. Community at Risk provides a comparative view of that controversy as it ensued in three communities where universities sought to host and manage National Biocontainment Laboratories (NBL) on behalf of the federal government. NBLs are a cornerstone of federal biodefense plans; they are ultrasecure laboratories where research on the most dangerous diseases can be conducted and microbiological and biomedical applications can be rapidly developed and deployed. By comparing community responses, the book highlights the role that local civic political dynamics play in defining what is at stake and perceptions of acceptable and unacceptable risk. It explains the civic politics of risk as rooted in locally shared governance conventions, politicized relations, and resonant virtues that clustered in each community context as a prevailing civics and discourse. In one community, the prevailing civics and discourse helped to ease locals toward acceptance, while in the other two communities, they helped to intensify skepticism and risk dispute. Through comparative analysis, the book shows why societal attempts to manage risk require greater attention to the local level where public understanding is often forged and political engagement arises and unfolds.Less
The anthrax attacks of 2001 provoked deep concern and urgency among U.S. security elites regarding bioterrorism. Coming after 9/11 and followed by the successive menace of West Nile virus, SARS, avian influenza, and most recently Ebola these events prompted the federal government to pursue an aggressive new biodefense agenda. Even given the purported menace of bio-catastrophe, however, the new federal risk management plans stirred controversy. Community at Risk provides a comparative view of that controversy as it ensued in three communities where universities sought to host and manage National Biocontainment Laboratories (NBL) on behalf of the federal government. NBLs are a cornerstone of federal biodefense plans; they are ultrasecure laboratories where research on the most dangerous diseases can be conducted and microbiological and biomedical applications can be rapidly developed and deployed. By comparing community responses, the book highlights the role that local civic political dynamics play in defining what is at stake and perceptions of acceptable and unacceptable risk. It explains the civic politics of risk as rooted in locally shared governance conventions, politicized relations, and resonant virtues that clustered in each community context as a prevailing civics and discourse. In one community, the prevailing civics and discourse helped to ease locals toward acceptance, while in the other two communities, they helped to intensify skepticism and risk dispute. Through comparative analysis, the book shows why societal attempts to manage risk require greater attention to the local level where public understanding is often forged and political engagement arises and unfolds.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Chapter 4 relates response in Roxbury, Massachusetts—a section of Boston where a group formed in opposition to Boston University’s bid to host an NBL. Civic partisans there invoked a direct action ...
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Chapter 4 relates response in Roxbury, Massachusetts—a section of Boston where a group formed in opposition to Boston University’s bid to host an NBL. Civic partisans there invoked a direct action style of civics and discourse reflective of local civic history, ongoing civic relations, and resonant civic virtues. In this context, the NBL was regarded as an environmental injustice insofar as its placement in Roxbury reflected the political disenfranchisement of neighborhood residents based on their race and class positions. Risk acceptability and dispute therefore echoed social and political history in which de facto segregation, municipal neglect, and ongoing marginalization of the neighborhood’s minority residents left them suspicious of both “white” trustee institutions and those from outside their neighborhood. Chapter 3 demonstrates that in Roxbury claims making emerged from a specific civic and political legacy where claims were not new even if the proposed NBL was.Less
Chapter 4 relates response in Roxbury, Massachusetts—a section of Boston where a group formed in opposition to Boston University’s bid to host an NBL. Civic partisans there invoked a direct action style of civics and discourse reflective of local civic history, ongoing civic relations, and resonant civic virtues. In this context, the NBL was regarded as an environmental injustice insofar as its placement in Roxbury reflected the political disenfranchisement of neighborhood residents based on their race and class positions. Risk acceptability and dispute therefore echoed social and political history in which de facto segregation, municipal neglect, and ongoing marginalization of the neighborhood’s minority residents left them suspicious of both “white” trustee institutions and those from outside their neighborhood. Chapter 3 demonstrates that in Roxbury claims making emerged from a specific civic and political legacy where claims were not new even if the proposed NBL was.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Chapter 3 empirically examines the risk dispute that erupted in Davis, California, and how the community’s style of home rule civics and discourse shaped local deliberations regarding the University ...
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Chapter 3 empirically examines the risk dispute that erupted in Davis, California, and how the community’s style of home rule civics and discourse shaped local deliberations regarding the University of California–Davis’s (UCD) biodefense plans. The chapter develops the role that Davis’s civic and political history has played in generating a field of political relations and set of value claims that heavily influenced civic dynamics in town. The chapter specifically focuses on the political-cultural resources mobilized to justify local opposition in the risk dispute surrounding UCD’s biodefense ambitions, while also addressing the counterclaims of those who supported the university and its plans. Chapter 3 demonstrates that the claims levied in the risk dispute emerged from a specific civic and political legacy; they were not new, although they targeted a new technology and risk management plan.Less
Chapter 3 empirically examines the risk dispute that erupted in Davis, California, and how the community’s style of home rule civics and discourse shaped local deliberations regarding the University of California–Davis’s (UCD) biodefense plans. The chapter develops the role that Davis’s civic and political history has played in generating a field of political relations and set of value claims that heavily influenced civic dynamics in town. The chapter specifically focuses on the political-cultural resources mobilized to justify local opposition in the risk dispute surrounding UCD’s biodefense ambitions, while also addressing the counterclaims of those who supported the university and its plans. Chapter 3 demonstrates that the claims levied in the risk dispute emerged from a specific civic and political legacy; they were not new, although they targeted a new technology and risk management plan.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book’s analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal ...
More
Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book’s analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal relations among civil society, government, and industry have been transformed in the twenty-first-century United States. In this context, risk and its management at the individual, local, and national levels have become the predominant concerns and bases for “risk dispute.” Chapter 1 also describes how previous scholarship has theorized risk management and risk perception, as well as civic and community engagement and risk dispute. The chapter ends with how Community at Risk contributes to this and related areas of research.Less
Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book’s analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal relations among civil society, government, and industry have been transformed in the twenty-first-century United States. In this context, risk and its management at the individual, local, and national levels have become the predominant concerns and bases for “risk dispute.” Chapter 1 also describes how previous scholarship has theorized risk management and risk perception, as well as civic and community engagement and risk dispute. The chapter ends with how Community at Risk contributes to this and related areas of research.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Chapter 5 empirically assesses civic response in Galveston where a managed civics and discourse predominated, wherein the civically engaged mostly downplayed the risks posed by federal biodefense ...
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Chapter 5 empirically assesses civic response in Galveston where a managed civics and discourse predominated, wherein the civically engaged mostly downplayed the risks posed by federal biodefense plans and a local NBL and, instead, emphasized its possible contributions to their island’s and the nation’s—even the world’s—“progress.” Residents expressed little of the skepticism shared in the other cases and mostly faith in the power of humankind, with the aid of enlightened leadership, scientific knowledge, technology, and economy to progressively improve and reshape their island community for the better. As with the other cases, Galveston’s civically engaged relied on claims and justifications that emerged from a specific civic and political history. That legacy and the civic relations, conventions, and virtues associated with that history helped ease locals toward accepting and eventually embracing biodefense plans and an NBL as an asset to both them and their collective future on the island.Less
Chapter 5 empirically assesses civic response in Galveston where a managed civics and discourse predominated, wherein the civically engaged mostly downplayed the risks posed by federal biodefense plans and a local NBL and, instead, emphasized its possible contributions to their island’s and the nation’s—even the world’s—“progress.” Residents expressed little of the skepticism shared in the other cases and mostly faith in the power of humankind, with the aid of enlightened leadership, scientific knowledge, technology, and economy to progressively improve and reshape their island community for the better. As with the other cases, Galveston’s civically engaged relied on claims and justifications that emerged from a specific civic and political history. That legacy and the civic relations, conventions, and virtues associated with that history helped ease locals toward accepting and eventually embracing biodefense plans and an NBL as an asset to both them and their collective future on the island.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
The Introduction develops the context within which the federal government’s biodefense plans emerged and on which they were justified, including 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the successive menace ...
More
The Introduction develops the context within which the federal government’s biodefense plans emerged and on which they were justified, including 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the successive menace presented by West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza and most recently Ebola. After discussing the context and moral panic that ensued over terrorism, which were used to justify the new federal biodefense agenda, the Introduction then turns to local manifestations of those plans and responses to them–the community cases whose civic responses are comparatively explored in Community at Risk. The Introduction then develops key terms and concepts that are relied on to investigate and understand the community cases as well as the research strategy deployed to gather relevant data, analyze it, and draw conclusions. The Introduction ends with a brief summary of how the book is organized by chapter.Less
The Introduction develops the context within which the federal government’s biodefense plans emerged and on which they were justified, including 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the successive menace presented by West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza and most recently Ebola. After discussing the context and moral panic that ensued over terrorism, which were used to justify the new federal biodefense agenda, the Introduction then turns to local manifestations of those plans and responses to them–the community cases whose civic responses are comparatively explored in Community at Risk. The Introduction then develops key terms and concepts that are relied on to investigate and understand the community cases as well as the research strategy deployed to gather relevant data, analyze it, and draw conclusions. The Introduction ends with a brief summary of how the book is organized by chapter.
Thomas D. Beamish
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804784429
- eISBN:
- 9780804794657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784429.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Chapter 2 sets up the analysis pursued in subsequent chapters. It does so through a focus on the “risk communication” strategies deployed by local universities that sought to secure funding and ...
More
Chapter 2 sets up the analysis pursued in subsequent chapters. It does so through a focus on the “risk communication” strategies deployed by local universities that sought to secure funding and support for their bids for an NBL. It was in those strategies that the local civic dialogue began in each civic and community context. It is in part the great similarity in risk communication strategies, coupled with variable local response, that makes comparing them so informative. Chapter 2 provides an important justification for the book’s comparative argument: that variation at the community level was mostly a function of local civic dynamics, not distinctive university risk communication strategies. In the context of established civics and discourse, even an issue like biodefense, while “new,” was locally understood via events, experiences, and beliefs that were a priori to it, requiring an analysis of such civic dimensions to apprehend and explain local response.Less
Chapter 2 sets up the analysis pursued in subsequent chapters. It does so through a focus on the “risk communication” strategies deployed by local universities that sought to secure funding and support for their bids for an NBL. It was in those strategies that the local civic dialogue began in each civic and community context. It is in part the great similarity in risk communication strategies, coupled with variable local response, that makes comparing them so informative. Chapter 2 provides an important justification for the book’s comparative argument: that variation at the community level was mostly a function of local civic dynamics, not distinctive university risk communication strategies. In the context of established civics and discourse, even an issue like biodefense, while “new,” was locally understood via events, experiences, and beliefs that were a priori to it, requiring an analysis of such civic dimensions to apprehend and explain local response.
Aysegul Aydin and Cem Emrence
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453540
- eISBN:
- 9780801456206
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453540.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that ...
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How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that both insurgents and governments adopt a wide variety of coercive strategies in war environments. The book integrates Turkish–Ottoman history with social science theory and unveils long-term policies that continue to inform the distribution of violence in Anatolia. It shows the astonishing similarity in combatants' practices over time and their resulting inability to consolidate Kurdish people and territory around their respective political agendas. The Kurdish insurgency in Turkey is one of the longest-running civil wars in the Middle East. This book demonstrates how violence in this conflict has varied geographically. Identifying distinct zones of violence, the book shows why Kurds and Kurdish territories have followed different political trajectories, guaranteeing continued strife between Kurdish insurgents and the Turkish state in an area where armed groups organized along ethnic lines have battled the central state since Ottoman times. The book presents the first empirical analysis of Kurdish insurgency, relying on original data. It argues that both state agents and insurgents are locked into particular tactics in their conduct of civil war and that the inability of combatants to switch from violence to civic politics leads to a long-running stalemate. Such rigidity blocks negotiations and prevents battlefield victories from being translated into political solutions and lasting agreements.Less
How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that both insurgents and governments adopt a wide variety of coercive strategies in war environments. The book integrates Turkish–Ottoman history with social science theory and unveils long-term policies that continue to inform the distribution of violence in Anatolia. It shows the astonishing similarity in combatants' practices over time and their resulting inability to consolidate Kurdish people and territory around their respective political agendas. The Kurdish insurgency in Turkey is one of the longest-running civil wars in the Middle East. This book demonstrates how violence in this conflict has varied geographically. Identifying distinct zones of violence, the book shows why Kurds and Kurdish territories have followed different political trajectories, guaranteeing continued strife between Kurdish insurgents and the Turkish state in an area where armed groups organized along ethnic lines have battled the central state since Ottoman times. The book presents the first empirical analysis of Kurdish insurgency, relying on original data. It argues that both state agents and insurgents are locked into particular tactics in their conduct of civil war and that the inability of combatants to switch from violence to civic politics leads to a long-running stalemate. Such rigidity blocks negotiations and prevents battlefield victories from being translated into political solutions and lasting agreements.
