Reviving Community: The Difficult Practice of Prioritizing Social Capital in Disaster Responses

Abstract

AbstractDrawing on his experiences coordinating among overseas donors and local aid groups responding to Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami, James Gannon gives high marks to Daniel Aldrich's Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post‐Disaster Recovery. He agrees with the importance of prioritizing social capital in disaster responses, but points out some of the practical challenges and pressures that make this difficult to do. Maintaining social capital sometimes involves difficult trade‐offs, it is less politically appealing than shortsighted “quick fixes,” and when nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are playing a growing role in the disaster response, it is more difficult for them to convince donors and other stakeholders of the need to prioritize approaches that strengthen social capital over other more tangible and easily understood interventions. Nonetheless, he argues that approaches that harness social capital are essential for sustainable and effective disaster responses.