Citation

Uekusa S, Matthewman S, Lorenz DF. Disasters 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12470

PMID

33247455

Abstract

Social capital discourse occupies an important place in disaster studies. Scholars have adopted various inflections of social capital to explain how those with greater social capital are generally more resilient to disasters and experience speedier recoveries. Disaster scholars have also discovered that people typically display altruistic tendencies in the wake of disasters and develop novel networks of mutual support - known as "communitas" which is also seen to built resilience and boost recovery. In this article, we use the work of Pierre Bourdieu to synthesize these literatures, conceptualizing communitas as "disaster social capital". We offer a fleshed-out definition of disaster social capital to distinguish it from regular social capital and discuss the barriers to, and enablers of, its formation. While primarily a conceptual discussion, we hope that it has practical and policy implications for disaster scholars and practitioners interested in inclusive disaster risk reduction as well as full and just recoveries. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Bourdieu; capital; communitas; disaster social capital; disaster theory; field; habitus; social capital