The link between social capital and disaster recovery: evidence from coastal communities in Bangladesh

Md. Masud-All-Kamal () and S. M. Monirul Hassan ()
Additional contact information
Md. Masud-All-Kamal: University of Chittagong
S. M. Monirul Hassan: University of Chittagong

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2018, vol. 93, issue 3, No 21, 1547-1564

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this research is to explore the role social capital played in disaster coping and the recovery process among the southwest coastal villages of Bangladesh. Qualitative methods of data collection such as observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were carried out with individuals from several occupational groups in the two of most affected villages by cyclone Aila. The findings suggest that social capital played an instrumental role in personal, household and community recovery processes in the wake of the cyclone. In particular, the bonding and bridging social capital significantly helped the villagers from the emergency period to long-term recovery, while the benefits of linking social capital were reaped by only few individuals. It also shows that features of prevailing social structure—patronage networks and class hierarchy—paved the way to the misappropriation of the sizable amount of disaster relief and rehabilitation resources by local elites and to the channeling to the less affected households. This led to the erosion of bridging social capital of communities, and the reinforcement of unscrupulous linking social networks. These findings contribute both to the social capital literature as well as to formulating sustainable policy and programs for future disasters.

Keywords: Cyclone Aila; Disaster coping and recovery; Social structure; Social capital; Coastal villages of Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-018-3367-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:93:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-018-3367-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-018-3367-z

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().