Social capital in the face of natural hazards

Abstract

This paper examines how social capital is affected by extreme natural events and how it plays a role in building resilience in both individuals and communities against potential future disasters. Three empirical studies involving four East Asian societies-China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan-where frequent natural hazards and rapid urbanization have left millions of people vulnerable to disasters were conducted The first study addresses three behavioral and cognitive measurements of social capital-social trust, voluntary association membership, and personal networks-and divides them into bonding and bridging social capital, in-group and out-group trust, homogeneous and heterogeneous membership, and strong and weak ties, to test their effects on self-evaluated community resilience to natural hazards in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The second study focuses on Mainland China. Using a multilevel modeling approach, the study examines how individual-level experiences of disasters and province-level damage caused by disasters influence residents' in-group, out-group, and political trust. The third study explores how individuals' past experiences of three types of natural hazards-floods, landslides, and earthquakes-as well as individuals' perceptions of their hazard risk and controllability affect their participation in voluntary associations, which is an important indicator of social capital. The study also evaluates how individuals' participation in voluntary associations influences their adoption of preparedness behaviors against future hazards.