Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online
Number of paper presentations	4
Location	Istanbul

Abstract

Humanitarian responses increasingly aim to prioritise approaches that leverage resources and capacities within affected communities, and support long-term adaptability, mitigation and recovery beyond short-term coping alone. Against this backdrop, research has demonstrated the value of social capital for resilience at various levels and stages of the disaster cycle, from preparedness through recovery. However, understanding social capital’s role in fragile and conflict-affected contexts is challenging. Stressors and shocks in these contexts can be protracted, cyclical and severe. In addition, conflict-related divisions can entrench, transform or undermine social bonds and networks, while insular forms of social capital can reinforce distrust and undermine long-term resilience. As such, understanding of the precise ways social capital can practically and positively support resilience in humanitarian contexts characterised by conflict and fragility remains limited. In response, this panel invites papers that explore the role(s) of social capital in humanitarian resilience in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, including contributions that i) map sources of social capital within and across crisis-affected groups; ii) identify how different agents in conflict contexts generate, undermine and/or harness social capital among affected populations; iii) trace pathways through which social capital contributes to, disrupts or undermines (different aspects of) humanitarian resilience; and iv) propose approaches for understanding, documenting and/or analysing social capital and its impacts on resilience.

Paper presentations