The role of social capital in building community drought resilience in arid and semi-arid farming regions

Haoying Wang

Chapter 11 in A Research Agenda for Social Capital in Economic Development, 2025, pp 247-261 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: As the climate warms, there has been mounting pressure on surface and groundwater resources in many irrigated agricultural regions. Farmers have no choice but to change their production and water use practices. Some of those changes motivate transformations to more sustainable water use, while others may not. The differences between sustainable water use and non-sustainable water use usually do not hinge only on technology (e.g., pumping and application methods). Non-technological factors such as institutions, policy design, and social capital also play an indispensable role. The primary goal of this chapter is to explore strategies and pathways for creating community social capital toward building drought resilience under climate change. Starting by exploring the roles of social capital in climate adaptation and its measurability in the context of community drought management, the chapter develops an operational framework for social capital by focusing on its measurability and policy relevance. The chapter further illustrates the conceptual framework through a case study assembled from project experiences in the New Mexico High Plains. The case study suggests that social capital functions related to financial pooling and benefit sharing are more challenging to build up. Still, community social capital becomes valuable if it can complement or serve as a substitute for formal institutions. In some scenarios, the growth of local social capital can even facilitate producer surplus and incentivize community-relevant entrepreneurship. Related to drought resilience building, future research should focus on the impact of negative social capital, the role of climate shocks and extreme events in motivating community collective actions, the relationship between individual behavior and community social capital, and exploring the interdisciplinary nature of social capital to provide better guidance in practice.

Keywords: Social capital; Irrigated agriculture; Drought resilience; Climate change; Water conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315819
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