Natural Disasters as a Catalyst for Social Capital

Download or read book Natural Disasters as a Catalyst for Social Capital written by Kevin F. Adler and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-04-03 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natural Disasters as a Catalyst for Social Capital examines the vastly under-explored link between natural disasters and social capital in regards to the unprecedented June 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In-depth qualitative interviews with flood victims and key informants in Cedar Rapids reveal that a resident’s perception of social capital after a natural disaster is shaped by their vulnerabilities and social mobility, which vary substantially and need to be understood contextually. This book, in highlighting the enormous impact of one disaster in a mid-sized Midwestern city, offers a framework for a new theory for why social capital shifts in societies from one generation to another: the transformative impact of shared traumas.