Social networks for older people's resilient aging-in-place: Lessons from the post-landslide Ksunu tribe in Taiwan

Abstract

The global population is aging rapidly, and this presents both opportunities and challenges. Although healthy aging is a critical disaster risk reduction strategy, most studies focus on older people's vulnerability in their physical, mental, and social preparation, as well as their disaster response. This study aims to explore how social networks boost older people's resilience to living with disaster risk for “aging in place” safely. We used a Tayal indigenous tribe, which was struck by two landslides in 2015, as a case study. We analyzed field data from participant observations and semi-structured interviews conducted from 2018 to 2020. The findings revealed that networks comprising government units and non-governmental organizations both accelerated the aging tribe's recovery from the landslides. A local church played a critical role in the network, as it strove to gain external resources for the tribe and united it via residents' common religious beliefs and the Tayal culture. The church also bridged government resources for the tribe, interweaving them into local lives to enable older people to age in place. This has transformed a solid bonding network into a mutual help network for older people in the tribe, reducing their vulnerability to disaster risk caused by being isolated from urban areas. We argued that the local context is the foundation of social capital-based networks to reinforce older people's resilience and to allow them to age in place safely.