The relationship between social capital and community resilience among urban poor communities in Malaysia

Abstract

The problem of poverty remains persistent in developing countries around the world. Poor households, particularly those headed by women, young people, and informal workers, particularly those who live in urban areas, are those most affected by vicious cycles of socioeconomic disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This condition, therefore, will lead to urban poverty issues that decline individuals’ quality of life and livelihoods due to the growing population and expansion of urbanization areas. However, there are limited numbers of empirical studies on the impact of community resilience on poverty. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between social capital and community resilience among urban poor communities. 481 respondents from urban poor communities living in the poor communities housing called, the People’s Housing Project (PHP) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were given a structured questionnaire by cluster sampling from December 2021 to July 2022. Data were analyzed using reliability analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. The findings showed that social capital is positively significant in community resilience building through having a good relationship with the community’s representative and having good involvement in the neighborhood. This study has proven that social capital in poverty adaptation among the poor should be given priority by the authorities in the poverty alleviation programs. The government must implement specific social capital policies and methods for upgrading the income of the urban poor with the aim of fostering resilience among urban poor communities in Kuala Lumpur in an effort to eradicate poverty.