Political Polarization during Extreme Events
Publication: Natural Hazards Review
Volume 24, Issue 1
Abstract
This technical note calls for an interdisciplinary research agenda to study the intersection of policy problems and extreme events. We argue that extreme events can unveil chronic problems in societies such as political polarization. We used social media data following the 2014 Soma mining disaster in Turkey as an illustrative case study. Our findings indicate that polarized sense-making during and following extreme events can hinder the effectiveness of response and recovery operations. We conclude with some recommendations for using social media data during response operations to improve disaster communications in contexts characterized by high levels of political polarization.
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Data Availability Statement
Social media data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 24 • Issue 1 • February 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 16, 2021
Accepted: Aug 16, 2022
Published online: Oct 7, 2022
Published in print: Feb 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Mar 7, 2023
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Cited by
- Clayton Wukich, Social Media Data Analysis: A Focus on the Government–Citizen Dynamic, Natural Hazards Review, 10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-1818, 24, 4, (2023).