Breaking down the silos: Building resilience through cohesive and collaborative social networks

Abstract

Building resilience at the local government level will require governance which is able to respond to the growing threats of climate-related risks, while transforming the vulnerabilities of the most marginal populations. This paper considers the influence that social networks have on knowledge exchange and adaptive governance for improving the ability of local governments to build resilience to floods. Using two local government case studies in South Africa, this paper found that the structure of social networks had an effect on the ability of local governments to transform flood vulnerabilities in informal settlements. In the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality, poor connections among actors resulted in the formation of institutional silos, limited knowledge-exchange processes and inhibited flood risk governance. In the Mossel Bay local municipality, strong social ties facilitated cohesion amongst actors, supported knowledge sharing and benefited flood risk governance. This paper demonstrates how effective social network structures in local governments can stimulate adaptive risk governance, and contribute to the development of coping, adaptive and transformative capacities.