Disasters and Social Capital

Risk Reduction and Geographical Legacies in the Philippines

By: Justin Veuthey

Write A Review

eText | 30 May 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$77.00

or 4 interest-free payments of $19.25 with

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Why choose an eTextbook?

Instant Access *

Purchase and read your book immediately

Read Aloud

Listen and follow along as Bookshelf reads to you

Study Tools

Built-in study tools like highlights and more

* eTextbooks are not downloadable to your eReader or an app and can be accessed via web browsers only. You must be connected to the internet and have no technical issues with your device or browser that could prevent the eTextbook from operating.

This book analyzes social capital and preparations for natural hazards in the Philippines. It emphasizes the importance of inequalities, contextualization, and scale, while also underlining the significance of historical and political contexts to better understand social dynamics. Social capital continues to be a debated concept, but it can be useful for thinking about how human societies interact with natural hazards. This book contributes to the growing scientific inquiries which have begun to address the connections between social capital and "natural" disasters. Chapters explore the links between these two fields of knowledge by analyzing the Filipino situation in general, as well as detailing a specific case study of a rural municipality in the Eastern Visayas region. The book's central argument is that economic inequality is detrimental to social capital which then has negative repercussions on preparing for natural hazards. In an analysis at several geographical scales, Justin shows how inequality, via social capital, makes societies more at risk of having natural hazards turn into disasters. The book argues that a cautious use of the concept of social capital, which is cognizant of the historical and geographical complexities of the context it is applied to, has the potential to improve the way people collectively prevent hazards from turning into disasters. It is essential reading for students, scholars, disaster risk management practitioners, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the complexities of climate change, inequality, and crisis resilience.