Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital

Esther Carmen* (Corresponding Author), Ioan Fazey, Helen Ross, Melissa Bedinger, F M Smith, Katrin Prager, Kerri McClymont, David S Morrison

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Social capital is considered important for resilience across social levels, including communities, yet insights are scattered across disciplines. This meta-synthesis of 187 studies examines conceptual and empirical understandings of how social capital relates to resilience, identifying implications for community resilience and climate change practice. Different conceptualisations are highlighted, yet also limited focus on underlying dimensions of social capital and proactive types of resilience for engaging with the complex climate change challenge. Empirical insights show that structural and socio-cultural aspects of social capital, multiple other factors and formal actors are all important for shaping the role of social capital for guiding resilience outcomes. Thus, finding ways to work with these different elements is important. Greater attention on how and why outcomes emerge, interactions between factors, approaches of formal actors and different socio-cultural dimensions will advance understandings about how to nurture social capital for resilience in the context of climate change.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1371–1387
Number of pages17
JournalAmbio
Volume51
Early online date11 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the UK Research and INNOVATION Economic and Social Research Council award number ES/J500136/1.

Keywords

  • community resilience
  • Climate change
  • Social capital
  • Socio-cultural factors

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