Photo credits to Channel NewsAsia
SMU Assistant Professor of Sociology Michael Genkin was interviewed for part 2 of the documentary by Channel News Asia called “Terror Unmasked”. The second part focused on maintaining social cohesion and racial harmony when terror strikes. Assistant Prof Genkin discussed how we can use social network theory to develop societal resilience to terrorist attacks. He emphasised the need to facilitate strong interracial and interreligious ties that would buffer against rumours, recriminations, and inter-communal tension that may result from a terrorist attack. “We need to move away from mere tolerance to … creating interracial social ties… [that are] deep and meaningful… facilitating those kinds of ties across society would be especially important to create resilience in case there is an attack that is aiming to polarize society,” he said.