Collaborative Research: Social Networks in Chronic Disasters - Exposure, Evacuation, and Resettlement

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Eric C. Jones and Dr. Arthur D. Murphy (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) will collaborate with Dr. Linda M. Whiteford and Dr. Graham A. Tobin (University of South Florida) to undertake research on the role of social networks in helping individuals and communities to recover from natural disasters. Previous research has found that using personal and community social networks can be a crucially important complement to help provided by institutions. Social networks appear to enhance individual and group recovery from hazard exposure, evacuations, and community resettlement. However, there are few formal Social Networks Analysis investigations of how these critical relations develop and operate to mitigate disaster effects. This research team will address that gap. Social Network Analysis can distinguish between groups that are densely connected, moderately connected, and loosely bridged by social ties. In Mexico, this research team found that social networks that produced moderate connections were particularly effective. This new study will build on that finding and consider more precisely the roles played by different kinds of network subgroups within three communities that have been affected in different ways by the ongoing eruptions of Mount Tungurahua, Ecuador. One community was temporarily evacuated; another community is made up of residents permanently resettled community from villages destroyed by recent major eruptions. and the third community has experienced ash falls has stayed put. The researchers will conduct surveys with 150 households about networks, well-being, disaster impact, and household characteristics. These quantitative data will be complemented by in-depth interviews to understand exactly how people recruit assistance from their networks. This research is important because it will further our understanding of why some people and communities successfully recover from disasters and other do not. In particular, it will answer the question of how access to different kinds of resources from social relationships does or does not help victims adapt to the cascade of impacts that follow in the wake of disaster events. The methodological innovations proposed for this study can be adapted to other social sciences, plus applied to disaster mitigation and resettlement efforts, economic development projects, and political violence, to support the kinds of networks that already exist. The researchers will also provide educational benefits to students who will accompany them to the field.