Does social capital contribute to resilience? Exploring the perspectives of displaced women living in urban slums in Khulna city

Abstract

Social capital has long been recognized as a facilitator of socio-economic development in different communities. However, the role of social capital (interaction, trust, sharing) in the resilience of displaced women in Bangladesh has not yet been adequately studied. Applying an empirical approach among 346 displaced women living in eight different slums of the coastal city, Khulna, in Bangladesh, this study attempts to explore social capital's contribution in building resilience when faced with shocks and hazards. The study considers social trust, neighborhood social cohesion, norms of reciprocity, civic participation, and groups and networks as social capital's main components. On the other hand, the main determinants of women's resilience are reducing women's poverty, increasing women's empowerment, and reducing violence against women. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and logistic regression models are used to explore the role of social capital in building women's resilience. The study outcomes reveal that, with a one-unit increase in groups and networks, the odds ratio (OR) of poverty will decrease by 0.652 per unit (OR = 0.652, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.442–0.963]). Furthermore, with a one-unit increase in groups and networks, the odds of respondents having a high level of economic control increase by 47% and with a one-unit increase in civic participation, the odds ratio of any form of violence decreases by 0.624 units (OR = 0.624; 95% CI = 0.426–0.916). This study provides evidence of the positive contribution of social capital in building the components of resilience among displaced women by reducing poverty, increasing empowerment, and reducing violence. The study's outcomes can facilitate the use of social capital in building displaced women's resilience in different communities.