Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery

Abstract

Robert Putnam, who turned ‘social capital’ into a vogue social science term in the early 1990s, defined it as the intangible benefits of living in a society with well-established ‘trust, norms and networks’ (Putnam 1993: 167, cited on p. 29). This book argues that after a major disaster has occurred ‘high levels of social capital – more than such commonly referenced factors as socioeconomic conditions, population density, amount of damage or aid – serve as the core engine of recovery’ (p. 15, italics in original).Four case studies are used to make the point. One is Hurricane Katrina, which Purdue political scientist Daniel P. Aldrich experienced first-hand. Another is the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as experienced in coastal communities in southern India. The other two are from Japan: the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and 1995 Kobe Earthquake.