Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Social Capital in Informing the Development of Neighborhood-Based Disaster Resilience Measurements

Abstract

The cultivation of neighborhood-based social capital has gained significant attention in the disaster management sector in recent years as a means to increase community disaster resilience. However, within the sector, the concept of social capital remains unclear and its measurement is limited at the neighborhood level due to a focus on predominately top-down and quantitative approaches. By using a qualitative, inductive-driven approach, this paper proposes an integrated social capital measurement framework that combines qualitative and quantitative measures for evaluating levels of social capital in neighborhoods. Nine focus groups consisting of 58 participants across a range of socioeconomically and ethnically diverse urban neighborhoods in New Zealand and the United States were conducted. Three key themes were identified that relate to the formation, activation, and benefits of social capital resources: community demography, cultural influences on social support, and neighborhood governance. By synthesizing the study's results and existing literature, this paper proposes a measurement framework that incorporates both quantitative indicators and contextual questions across six structural and four cognitive social capital domains. The framework can serve as a starting point for neighborhood stakeholders, emergency management practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to assess the resilience of neighborhoods and identify areas for improvement.

Effective environment indicators on improving the resilience of Mashhad neighborhoods

“…It also helps decision-makers to plan and develop pre-disaster preparation activities. Although many studies have evaluated urban resilience, most of them have considered only one dimension of resilience (Copeland et al 2020;Kwok et al 2019;Rezaei et al 2016). In comparison, this study has examined all aspects of resilience and related indicators.…”

“…Although many researchers have evaluated urban resilience, most of them have considered solely one dimension of resilience (Copeland et al 2020;Kwok et al 2019;Rezaei et al 2016). Nevertheless, this study examines all aspects of resilience and its pertinent indicators.…”

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