Chapter 29 - Social capital and disaster risk reduction in a periurban context

Abstract

This paper explores the relevance of the concept of social capital in improving periurban water security and building resilience of communities in periurban contexts. In particular, it seeks to examine how bonding and bridging social capital play a role in building the disaster resilience of periurban communities. The paper draws on ethnographic and action research in Gurgaon, a city in the northwest Indian state of Haryana. It describes three ways in which social capital is relevant in understanding periurban water security and building the resilience of periurban communities to water insecurity induced by urbanization and climate change: first, as a way of building civic engagement—that is, in terms of improving the interface of civic agencies with periurban communities to improve the accountability of the former to the latter; second, as a way of mobilizing social relationships to improve access to groundwater; and the third refers to the mobilization of norms of cooperation in making wastewater, widely used in periurban agriculture in the face of growing urbanization and climate change, accessible to a large number of users. Research and capacity building programs for building resilience in periurban spaces need to pay attention to forms of social capital that are mobilized to improve access to water. Promoting civic engagement by bringing periurban residents into dialog with utilities can build their coping capacity and resilience.