The Era of Structural Crisis and Research on Educational Administration
Child Safety and Crisis Management after the Great East Japan Earthquake
2022 Volume 48 Pages 42-61
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2022 Volume 48 Pages 42-61
The purpose of this study is to examine how children's safety and risk management should be after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The term "crisis management" has the function of a social device and includes the establishment of school safety together with the power relations within the school and the social context to which the school belongs. This is where "community" decision-making comes into play.
Using Donald Aldrich's theory of social capital as a clue, I would like to consider how the "community" made decisions. Aldrich's theory of social capital has two characteristics. One demonstrates the dual nature of social capital, which is both useful and fraught with danger. The other is that it describes three types of social capital.
In the case of the Great East Japan Earthquake, there is a "community" that is a good target. One is the "community" that is widely talked about as a "community" that functioned effectively in terms of people's safety at the time of the earthquake. Its symbolic presence was the school support community headquarters. In the other unspoken 'region', the lives of children could not be protected. This was a decision made at Okawa Elementary School in Miyagi Prefecture. Here, a binding type exists within, and decision making is performed. However, not only that, but a weak cord surrounds the bound portion in multiple layers.
Ten years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, during the Corona crisis, children were injured at C Elementary School when the wooden pole of a ball net broke. As people became less involved, social capital slowed down and the decision-making of cohesive actors became ambiguous. The "dissolution of the subject" occurred and caused the accident.
Due to the declining birthrate and aging population, the "community" will be weakened more and more. Nonetheless, educational policy in the 'community' as a whole lies in the irony of ideas and financial measures. With the structural challenges, the school safety law system is driven by incidental type.
School crisis management cannot be completed by the school alone. The time has come to provide comprehensive and interdisciplinary knowledge and discussion on how schools should be managed as public goods.
