Introduction
Wei-An
Chang (Dean, College of Hakka Studies, National Chiao Tung University)
Invited Article
1. Can
FUKUSIMA Save the World? Toward an Nuclear Phase-Out Society
Koichi
Hasegawa (Professor, Department of Sociology, Graduate School of Arts and
Letters,
Tohoku University)
Ching-Lan
Huang (Trans.) (Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology, Tunghai University)
2. Japan
after the "3.11": A Great Transformation of the Technical
Civilization
Yung-Feng
Chen (Executive Director of Tunghai University's Center for Japan Area Studies)
3. An
Introduction to the Research Center for Urban Safety and Security in Kobe
University
Tsung-Yi
Lee (Ph.D Candidate, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University)
Special Issue Article
1. Beyond
Bureaucracy: the Evolution of Disaster Relief in the Age of Web 2.0
Wei-An
Chang (Dean, College of Hakka Studies, National Chiao Tung University)
Tsung-Yi
Lee (Ph.D Candidate, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University)
Ilya
Eric Lee (Ph.D Student, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University)
2. The
Construction of Social Meaning in Disaster Narratives of Mass Media: ramaturgical
Analysis of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Japan
Wei-Hsian
Chi (Associate Professor, Department of Applied Sociology, Nan-Hua University)
3. Can
Social Vulnerability Explain the Distribution of Mortality in the 921
Earthquake?
Ko-Hua
Yap (Project appointed assistant professor, Department of Sociology, National
Sun Yat-sen University)
4. Incomplete
Transform: The Development and Predicament of the Role of Women in
Post-Disaster Settings
Jung-Chia
Chang (Ph.D Student, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University)
5. Resilience
of Nursing Homes in Taiwan in the Process of Flood Evacuation
Hsiang-Chieh
Lee (Senior Assistant Research Fellow National Science and Technological Center
for
Disaster Reduction [NCDR])
Yang-Ning
Lee (Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
Hui-HsuanYang
(Senior Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
Ming-Jen
Chuang (Senior Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
6. A
Study of Sustainable Sociology: Reflection on 921 Earthquake Disaster
Shih-Ming
Huang (Associate Professor, Institute of Economic and Social Studies, College
of Hakka Studies,
National United University)
Research Note
1. A
Disaster of Data? Social Surveys’ Limitations in the 921 Earthquake
Yi-Chun
Chang (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University)
Thung-Hong
Lin (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica)
Invited Article
Can FUKUSIMA Save the World? Toward an Nuclear
Phase-Out Society
Koichi
Hasegawa (Professor, Department of Sociology, Graduate School of Arts and
Letters,
Tohoku University)
Ching-Lan
Huang (Trans.) (Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology, Tunghai University)
This article examines the change of the nuclear power policy in
Germany to demonstrate why the FUKUSIMA nuclear disaster triggered by 311
Tōhoku earthquake of Japan might save the world. The author argues that the
shocking impact of FUKUSIMA directly leads the Merkel coalition to change their
nuclear policy immediately. Rethinking the “ethics” in power policy, the
Germany government decides to close all their nuclear power plants by 2022,
which means Germany will be toward a nuclear phase-out society. The author
believe that the demonstration effects of Germany power policy will feed back
to the policy making about nuclear power in Japan and dream that the same
feedback will spread out to other countries with nuclear power plants projects,
such as Taiwan.
Keywords:
FUKUSIMA, 311 Tōhoku earthquake, German nuclear policy, nuclear phase-out
society
Special Issue Article
Beyond Bureaucracy: the Evolution of Disaster Relief
in the Age of Web 2.0
Wei-An
Chang (Dean, College of Hakka Studies, National Chiao Tung University)
Tsung-Yi
Lee (Ph.D Candidate, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University)
Ilya
Eric Lee (Ph.D Student, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University)
The emergence of the disaster relief through new web applications
has challenged the traditional bureaucracy model but how it evolves has not
been well examined in Taiwan. This article reviews the development of emergency
responding behaviors in the first decade of the 21st century. The authors argue
that although the ideas of web 2.0 has proven useful in the process of disaster
management under different disaster context, the bureaucracy has no ideas how
to integrate these applications into the traditional relief actions because of
the bureaucratic inertia. As we can see in 2004 Tsunami and 2010 Haiti
Earthquake, the emergence of the volunteers & technological communities
(V&TCs) has tried to fill this gap between the bureaucracy and the new web
application and bring new possibilities in disaster relief effort.
Keywords:
disaster relief, bureaucracy, web application, social media, crowdsourcing
The Construction of Social Meaning in Disaster
Narratives of Mass Media: ramaturgical Analysis of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
in Japan
Wei-Hsian
Chi (Associate Professor, Department of Applied Sociology, Nan-Hua University)
Disaster narratives of mass media essentially influence the ways of
social communication and, thus, the public attitude toward disasters. This
means that disaster narratives represent not only messages, but also social
actions which construct a social meaning frame for understanding the disasters.
Besides, these narratives of mass media could evoke other social actions, like those
of some civil organizations or the public donation etc. These reflexively
create more issues for media reports. Regarding the reflexive characteristic of
disaster narratives, the theory of social dramaturgy provides us a good
standpoint to understand how we could face the disasters and how we shall
understand them. This study focuses on the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011
and analyses the related reports in the Taiwanese newspapers. By dramaturgical
theory, I shall show how the various disaster narratives form a social drama,
and how they construct a social meaning frame. It shows that disaster is one of
a few issues which promote the collective existence of “communitas”.
Keywords:
Disaster, Narrative, Dramaturgical Analysis, Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Mass
Media
Can Social Vulnerability Explain the Distribution of
Mortality in the 921 Earthquake?
Ko-Hua
Yap (Project appointed assistant professor, Department of Sociology, National
Sun Yat-sen
University)
Social vulnerability means the social characteristics affecting the
potential to loss in natural hazards and the ability to recover. In respect to
determining who vulnerable to hazards, social factors usually play important
roles. However, the assessment for social vulnerability in Taiwan is still rare
and few studies have limit to construct indicators. This research examine
whether social vulnerability can explain the distribution of mortality in the
921 Earthquakes. By means of factor analysis, 16 variables of each township of
1990 are reduced to 3 independent factors reflecting the characteristics of low
social-economic status, aging, unemployment and incomplete family,
respectively. The results of regression models show all 3 factors positively
correlate to the mortality under the same seismic intensity. However, only the
factor of aging achieves statistical significance level. Due to the mortality
reflects only the direct impact of the disaster, the relationship between
social vulnerability and the follow-up impacts after the disaster remains
further investigations.
Keywords:
vulnerability, sociology of disaster, social indicators research, hazard
Incomplete Transform: The Development and Predicament
of the Role of Women in Post-Disaster Settings
Jung-Chia
Chang (Ph.D Student, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University)
Disaster research is an emerging field of study in sociology, with
gender being one of the related research issues yet to be investigated. In the
existing studies, “gender” is mostly recognized as one variable of different
statistics to predict or assume change in disaster research. With gender
difference has been identified in range of studies, the configuration that
render such difference has yet to be explored. In what direction would the
division of labor between gender and power relations alter along the changes of
family structures and even the status of women followed by disasters? Would
disasters reinforce the existing gender inequality? These issues would be
challenging and worthy of being observed in gender and disaster studies.
In this article, the author first attempts to identify lacking
aspects of gender issues by reviewing the development of disaster sociology,
including the definitions of disaster and related issues. In addition, the
author seeks to venture out gender perspectives by analyzing life experiences
of members of Shigang Mama Theater Troupe, a mutual help and development group
established after the 921 Earthquake in Taiwan, in response to the inadequacy
of current disaster studies.
Keywords:
disaster research, gender relation, Shigang Mama Theatre Troupe
Resilience of Nursing Homes in Taiwan in the Process
of Flood Evacuation
Hsiang-Chieh
Lee (Senior Assistant Research Fellow National Science and Technological Center
for
Disaster Reduction [NCDR])
Yang-Ning
Lee (Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
Hui-HsuanYang
(Senior Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
Ming-Jen
Chuang (Senior Assistant Research Fellow, NCDR)
This study uses the resilience approach to analyze flood evacuation
of nursing homes in Taiwan. Besides conducting in-depth interviews of nursing
homes flooded during recent extreme weather events in Taiwan, we also
interviewed rescue teams and a local emergency operation center. The study
identifies three capacities representing resilience: (1) Rescuing: Major
influencing factors are the government’s early warning SOP, nursing homes’
social network, preparedness in manpower, residents’ ability to move, and
whether having evacuation SOP. (2) Transportation arrangement: Main causes
include formal and informal social networks. (3) Sheltering: Besides formal and
informal social networks, preparedness in food, power generators, etc. are also
important.
Keywords:
Resilience, Social network, nursing homes, sheltering, emergency rescue
A Study of Sustainable Sociology: Reflection on 921
Earthquake Disaster
Shih-Ming
Huang (Associate Professor, Institute of Economic and Social Studies, College
of Hakka
Studies, National United University)
This study tries to construct sociology of disaster with concepts of
sustainable development, while emphasizing the importance of local sustainable
agenda and agencies which includes how to maintain the equilibrium of three
dimensions of economic production, social life and ecological environment after
1999's 921 earthquake disaster. The social crisis theory of Habermas, Beck's
analysis of risk society and Luhmann's ideas of system theory are also
discussed in this paper.
Gongyong Chunqiu emphasizes the responsibilities of government to
undertake the shock and hurt of natural disaster. Facing abnormal and disaster
phenomenon of nature, Confucianism adopted symbolic struggle and aroused
structural critic and reflexive critic actions
The experience of disaster governance actions could be contemplated
by thinking and interpreting the words and hexagrams of I Ching. Hexagrams of I Ching
Zhengua were meaningful to play the fields of words combined with possible
circumstances of changing conditions of disaster process. It's interesting to
observe phenomena and to play meanings of words to construct sociology of
disaster which can inspire other themes of sociological imagination.
Keywords:
disaster, sociology, sustainable development, 921 earthquake, Gongyong Chunqiu,
I Ching
Research Note
A Disaster of Data? Social Surveys’ Limitations in the
921 Earthquake
Yi-Chun
Chang (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University)
Thung-Hong
Lin (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica)
Previous
disaster studies in Taiwan are quite limited until the 921 earthquake. After
the earthquake, however, most research analyzed victim-only samples suffering
from selection bias. This article compares three earthquake-related surveys and
illustrates their limitations. Taiwan Education Panel Survey with nationwide
high school students samples is not a random sample of the national population
and biased by some retrospective errors. Collected through telephone surveys,
Social Image Telephone Survey may lose victims who were damaged too much to
keep a household telephone. Finally, House Reconstruction Database was
constructed by coding the information of the applicants for the House
Reconstruction Project of the 921 Earthquake Relief Foundations. However, the
requirements of the applicants may lead to the self-selection problem. These
results imply that the limitations of the datasets have biased the statistics
of disaster analyses. Therefore, we suggest the government and relative relief
institutions shall conduct a victims’ census after each disaster to support
Taiwanese disaster studies in the future.
Keywords:
survey bias, the 921 earthquake, Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS), Social
Image Telephone Survey (SITS), House Reconstruction Database (HRD)
Social Network