The Impact of Social Capital on Residential Water-Affecting Behaviors in a Drought-Prone Australian Community

Miller, Evonne; Buys, Laurie

doi:10.1080/08941920701818258

Cited by 94 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Furthermore, in the field of environmental policy, the influence of social capital has been analysed both in collective and individual levels (e.g. Jones et al 2009b;Miller and Buys 2008). In the present article, an analysis in individual level is conducted as it permits the exploration of interactions between citizens and public policy implementation (Heffron 2000).…”

Section: Social Capital and Environmental Policy Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, participation in social networks may also have a significant influence. Networks function as channels of information, transmitting knowledge for the possible benefits and costs accompanying the application of a public policy (Jones et al 2009a;Miller and Buys 2008) and thus enforcing the arguments for the need of policy implementation. Furthermore, dense social networks are important in order to increase citizens' participation and awareness regarding environmental issues (Wakefield et al 2006).…”

Section: Social Capital and Environmentally Responsible Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigating the influence of social costs and benefits of environmental policies through social capital theory

Jones

2009

Policy Sci

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Section: Social Capital and Environmental Policy Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Capital and Environmentally Responsible Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the influence of social costs and benefits of environmental policies through social capital theory

Jones

2009

Policy Sci

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“…Therefore, it is extremely important to create a longstanding water-saving culture in communities. As discussed earlier, community support, through sociocultural interactions in a community, could exert a strong influence on water-saving practices [5,14,19]. Understanding and being able to shape neighborhood effects might become a useful lever to facilitate initiatives that aim at promoting community engagement.…”

Section: Neighborhood Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dean et al [14] argued that an individual's social context, through social capital, would influence support for water-saving management approaches. The term "social capital" in their study refers to the social connectedness of a community that enables residents to work together collaboratively for mutual benefits [18,19]. Dean et al [14] reported that social capital, measured by participation and membership of community organizations, played an important role in building engagement in water-related issues.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responding to the Drought: A Spatial Statistical Approach to Investigating Residential Water Consumption in Fresno, California

Wang

Dong

2017

Sustainability

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Using data from the 2015 Residential Water Consumption Survey, this study examines residential water-use behavior and attitudes after the recent drought in Fresno, California. Spatial autoregressive models of residential water consumption were estimated, accounting for the effects of social interactions in communities (i.e., neighborhood effects), while controlling for indoor and outdoor house attributes, economic conditions, and attitudes toward water uses. The findings show that the spatial autocorrelations do exist. This suggests that the neighborhood effects can be a useful lever to facilitate initiatives aiming at promoting community engagement on water-saving practices. The results also indicate that a larger house tends to incur more water use, so does the presence of pools. Using a drip irrigation system for watering the backyard can help reduce water consumption. Medium income families turn out to use the least amount of water among different income groups, suggesting that water-saving policies may yield different results among residents of various income levels. Interestingly, respondents who considered themselves heavy water users actually used less water. This implies that the awareness of water importance can significantly influence residents' water-use behavior and therefore the promotion of a water-saving culture can help reduce residential water consumption.

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“…Social capital is a broad construct: it has been described as the factors that 'glue' society together (Edwards, 2004), and defined as 'the social connectedness of a community that enables people, organisations, and communities to work together collaboratively for mutual benefit' (Edwards, 2004;Miller & Buys, 2008). Using the economic analogy of 'capital', social capital is conceptualised as a resource that can be accumulated or drawn upon in times of need (Flora & Flora, 2012).…”

Section: Social Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

How social capital influences community support for alternative water sources

Dean

Fielding

Lindsay

et al. 2016

Sustainable Cities and Society

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2 Highlights  Social capital, measured by involvement in community organisations, was positively associated with community support for alternative water sources.  This association was mediated greater by greater water-related social norms, waterrelated knowledge, and information recall.  These pathways between community involvement and policy support were not consistently observed in all social groups.  These mediation pathways were weaker in urban settings and in those who spoke a language other than English at home. ABSTRACTEnsuring future water security requires broad community support for changes in policy, practice, and technology, such as those involved in delivering alternative water schemes. Building community support for alternative water sources may involve a suite of engagement activities, ranging from information campaigns, through to grassroots and participatory approaches. There is increasing recognition that 'social capital'-the degree of social connectedness, trust, and shared values within a community-is important for building support for pro-environmental policies. However, little research has examined how social capital might influence support for alternative water schemes. We surveyed a representative sample of Australian adults (n=5194).Support for alternative water sources was examined using a series of questions focusing on stormwater harvesting, desalination, and recycled water. Involvement in community organisations (defined as participation or membership) was used as an indicator of social capital. Using a series of mediation analyses, we identified that community involvement is associated with support for alternative water sources, and that this effect is mediated by (i) stronger water-related social norms, (ii) greater water-related knowledge, and (iii) increased recall of water-related information. Our results also suggest that these indirect effects can be conditional upon location, employment status, life satisfaction, and language spoken within the home. These findings highlight the importance of social capital in building engagement in water-related issues, and specifically, building support for alternative water sources. In addition they highlight potential pathways for the association between social capital and support for alternative water sources for different social groups and communities.

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The Impact of Social Capital on Residential Water-Affecting Behaviors in a Drought-Prone Australian Community

Cited by 94 publications

References 23 publications

Investigating the influence of social costs and benefits of environmental policies through social capital theory

Investigating the influence of social costs and benefits of environmental policies through social capital theory

Responding to the Drought: A Spatial Statistical Approach to Investigating Residential Water Consumption in Fresno, California

How social capital influences community support for alternative water sources

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