2024 Judith Neilson UTZON Lecture - Professor Daniel Aldrich

Professor Daniel Aldrich will give this address entitled Why Social Capital and Social Infrastructure are Critical for Resilience.

Much of our policy process focuses on the role of physical infrastructure, that is, structures like seawalls that hope to mitigate the impact of shocks and disasters such as floods. 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, Aldrich pushes us to appreciate how the modest and often underappreciated field of social infrastructure should be front and centre as we confront wicked problems.