Ties that bind: Local networks, communities and adaptive capacity in rural Ghana

Chaudhury, Abrar; Thornton, Thomas F.; Helfgott, Ariella; Ventresca, Marc J.; Sova, Chase

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.05.010

Cited by 40 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Separate from the Rockenbauch and Sakdapolrak's (2017) review, this evaluation provides a practical understanding of why social networks and social network mapping should be used within community disaster resilience research in the Global South. Mapping the community's networks, including their external relations, provides a clearer picture of the community structure and the role of local actors and local networks [49], which can then be directly linked with particular resilience features [44]. For researchers and practitioners alike, these case studies showed that social network mapping is an imperative step to understanding how community disaster resilience is built from the bottom-up.…”

Section: Diversementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of framing, only four case studies saw the role of social networks as solely creating, forming, or resulting in social capital, or in the case of Minamoto (2010), structural social capital. Instead, the majority of studies focused on social networks as connections or pipes, with studies aiming to 'connect the dots' [48] and focus on 'the ties that bind' [49]. Within these studies social networks were seen as a means of accessing and exchanging resources, information, support, and knowledge.…”

Section: Conceptualisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one study was able to provide cross-community analyses of bridging networks [53]. As a result, the majority of these structural-based approaches focused on looking at the importance of key actors and a member's relative positions to these central nodes within a bonding network, e.g., [12,48,49].…”

Section: Diversementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience

2019

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Disaster risk reduction (DRR) research has long recognised that social networks are a vital source of support during and after a shock. However, the quantification of this social support, primarily through its recognition as social capital, has proven problematic as there is no singular method for its measurement, invalidating the credibility of studies that try to correlate its effects with community disaster resilience. Within the wider resilience field, research that specifically utilises social networks as the focus of analysis is evolving. This paper provides a critical synthesis of how this developing discourse is filtering into community disaster resilience, reviewing empirical case studies from the Global South within DRR that use social network analysis and connectivity measurement. Our analysis of these studies indicates that a robust methodology utilising social network analysis is emerging, which offers opportunity for research cross-comparability. Our review also finds that without this bottom-up mapping, the implementation of top-down preparedness policy and procedures are likely to fail, resulting in the advocation of social network analysis as a critical methodology in future resilience research and policy planning.

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Section: Diversementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptualisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience

2019

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“…Drawing from Sen's (1981) capabilities theory, adaptive capacity theorists once assumed that adaptive capacity is commensurate with-or is at least improved by-financial capital (IPCC, 2001;Vincent, 2007;Engle, 2011;Notenbaert et al, 2013). Yet a farmer's capacity to cope with and adapt to climate uncertainties depends on many factors beyond financial resources, such as their personal networks (Chaudhury et al, 2017); multiple dimensions and stressors of poverty (Scoones, 1998(Scoones, , 2009O'Brien et al, 2004O'Brien et al, , 2009Lemos et al, 2013;Bailey, 2017); institutional support (Yohe and Tol, 2002;Smit and Pilifosova, 2003;Vincent, 2007;Gupta et al, 2010;Berman et al, 2012); psycho-social dimensions (Grothmann and Patt, 2005;Fazey et al, 2010;Mortreux and Barnett, 2017); and access to relevant information (Jha and Gupta, 2016). The most poorly studied of these factors is how the provision of relevant information impacts adaptive capacity (Mbow et al, 2014;Graefe et al, 2017;Mortreux and Barnett, 2017).…”

Section: Situating Agricultural Information In Adaptive Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Information's Impact on the Adaptive Capacity of Ghana's Smallholder Cocoa Farmers

Maguire‐Rajpaul

Khatun

Hirons

2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Ghanaian smallholders grow one quarter of the world's cocoa, but climate change, individual extreme weather events, such as droughts, as well as deforestation increasingly threaten cocoa production. Pertinent information could bolster adaptive capacity. However, in Ghana's cocoa sector, relevant agricultural information is not available to all farmers, which can exacerbate power asymmetries. This paper focuses on how (i) agricultural and drought-adaptive information and (ii) socioeconomic characteristics shape a cocoa farmer's adaptive capacity. We conducted our study in the aftermath of 2015-16's prolonged El Niño-induced drought that negatively impacted the livelihoods of cocoa smallholders across Ghana. In 48 semi-structured interviews and 12 focus groups, we asked smallholders how they responded to the drought to decipher how adaptive capacity compares between farmers receiving four different sources of agricultural information, and of diverse socioeconomic status. Overall, agricultural information improved cocoa farmers' adaptive capacity compared to those who received no formal agricultural information. Smallholders detailed adaptive techniques that would be accessible to, and thus replicable by, other poorly-resourced cocoa farmers. Shade tree management and income diversification were identified as pertinent adaptive actions. However, we identified a divergence between exposure to agricultural information and its transformation into substantive adaptive action. Additionally, informal information sharing between smallholders represents an underutilized resource by extension programmes. We found that adaptive capacity is also determined by socioeconomic characteristics: particularly gender, and to a lesser extent formal education level, proximity to asphalt roads, and land tenure. Finally, we present evidence that framing adaptive techniques in relatable terms that resonate with farmers' immediate livelihood concerns could narrow the adaptation deficit prevalent in Ghana's cocoa sector.

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“…For instance, a tribal household may in the longterm modify its honey-extraction practices in order to reduce risk of exposure to KFD. In any event, determining whether to implement short or long-term adaptive strategies is largely dependent on the contextual situation (including, socio-cultural, economic and political realities) [36,37].…”

Section: Conceptualising Disease Information and Adaptive Capacity Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘None of My Ancestors Ever Discussed this Disease Before!’ How Disease Information Shapes Adaptive Capacity of Marginalised Rural Populations in India

Asaaga

Rahman

Kalegowda

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Smallholder farmer and tribal communities are often characterised as marginalised and highly vulnerable to emerging zoonotic diseases due to their relatively poor access to healthcare, worse-off health outcomes, proximity to sources of disease risks, and their social and livelihood organisation. Yet, access to relevant and timely disease information that could strengthen their adaptive capacity remain challenging and poorly characterised in the empirical literature. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of disease information in shaping the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmer and tribal groups to Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fever. Though reported from the late 1950s onwards, there has been an accelerated spread in human cases of this disease since 2014 to new states in southern India. Methods: We carried out household surveys (n=227) and in-depth interviews (n=25) in two affected districts – Shimoga and Wayanad – in the Western Ghats region. Results: Our findings broadly suggest that, despite the generally limited awareness about KFD, access to disease information improved households’ propensity to implement adaptation strategies relative to households that had no access to it. Of the variety of adaptation strategies implemented, vaccination, avoiding forest visits, wearing of protective clothing and footwear, application of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) oil and income diversification were identified by respondents as important adaptive measures during the outbreak seasons. Even so, we identified significant differences between individuals in exposure to disease information and its contribution to substantive adaptive action. Households reported several barriers to implement adaptation strategies including, lack of disease information, low efficacy of existing vaccine, distrust, religio-cultural sentiments, and livelihood concerns. We also found that informal information sharing presented a promising avenue from a health extension perspective albeit with trade-offs with potential distortion of the messages through misinformation and/or reporting bias. Conclusions: Altogether, our findings stress the importance of contextualising disease information (tailored to risk factors, coping strategies and alternative livelihood options) and implementing interventions in a participatory way that sufficiently addresses the social determinants of health in order to bolster households’ adaptive capacity to KFD and other neglected endemic zoonotic diseases.

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Ties that bind: Local networks, communities and adaptive capacity in rural Ghana

Cited by 40 publications

References 51 publications

Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience

Measurement of Social Networks for Innovation within Community Disaster Resilience

Agricultural Information's Impact on the Adaptive Capacity of Ghana's Smallholder Cocoa Farmers

‘None of My Ancestors Ever Discussed this Disease Before!’ How Disease Information Shapes Adaptive Capacity of Marginalised Rural Populations in India

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