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.
Intellectual Merit: This comparative, multisite project expands our knowledge of responses to disasters, consequences of post-disaster re-settlement, and the role that social networks play in resilience and recovery. In addition, the research developed a methodology for assessing, measuring, and connecting spatial network structures to personal responses. The methodological and theoretical innovations for anthropology from such an endeavor should prove significant. The team's pioneering development of spatial network analysis in anthropology accompanied by ethnographic understandings of relationships and reciprocity could have critical impacts in disaster/hazard studies undertaken in geography, psychology, sociology, economics, and community development studies. Broader Impacts of the Research: It is anticipated that one result of the research is a new model of disaster response for chronic disaster areas in rural communities. The growing field of disaster studies, along with anthropology and geography, continues to search for ways to understand the interface between political and geophysical events and human social responses. Social networks appear to provide a mechanism by which people adapt, re-connect, and reduce their vulnerability. In the past, it has been difficult to analyze social networks in a dynamic and complex form using large data sets. This research, we hope, will provide some innovative and technologically stable means to achieve those goals. Summary of Research Findings: Chronic disasters can have serious, long-term impacts on society, and present challenges to emergency managers that are different from single events. These chronic conditions are not generally addressed in the hazards literature since studies tend to focus on individual incidents. However, in chronic settings, various socio-economic and political characteristics, including personal relationships, social contacts, shared interest groups, and community-building activities combine dynamically and evolve to either ameliorate or exacerbate levels of vulnerability and resilience. In this research, a social network methodology was used to examine how such traits affect hazard exposure, evacuation and resettlement outcomes. Four social network types were identified recognizing that in reality these are points along one or more continua: i. Closed Networks: nearly everybody interacts with everybody else forming a tight group likely with high cultural homogeneity; ii. Extended Networks: relatively closed cores but with some ties or bridges to more loosely connected individuals; iii. Subgroup Networks: at least two distinct groups or cores that are usually well-bridged or connected; and iv. Sparse Networks: relatively few ties among individuals and few bridges. Research was conducted in two volcanically active areas that have experienced ash-falls, lahars, and some pyroclastic activity over a number of years. Field work included questionnaire surveys, ethnographic studies, and interviews with government officials and political leaders in four communities, one located near Popocatépetl in Mexico and three situated around Mount Tungurahua in Ecuador (Figure 1). All four communities are heavily dependent on agriculture, although remittances play an important role in maintaining some livelihoods. Many residents have been evacuated, some on multiple occasions, while others have elected to remain in place during eruptions. Also, one community in Ecuador is a permanent resettlement site, although it is still exposed to periodic ash-falls. Results show that residents continue to face considerable hardships; over the years, socio-economic conditions have progressively deteriorated in a cascade of impacts starting with the destruction of basic crops and livestock. This has culminated in a changing agricultural landscape, affected economic circumstances, and compromised human health. Not surprisingly, levels of recovery following eruptions have varied. Residents who evacuated from their homes for long periods often experienced poorer health and faced greater economic challenges than those who remained in place. In Ecuador, those who evacuated frequently, and for shorter periods, had fewer health problems than those who either did not evacuate or stayed away from home for longer periods. We started with the hypothesis that residents with networks comprised of strong subgroups and relatively robust bridging would be more successful than those with closed or extremely sparse (disconnected) networks in accessing varied and appropriate information and resources. We have learned that the structure of networks is indeed important in disaster recovery, but that its mechanism can depend on context. We must also consider the degree to which network structure is a product of the chronic hazards themselves. Overall, social networks serve important purposes in disaster environments and appear to influence levels of vulnerability and potential resilience. However, continued analysis and follow-up research will determine if differences among research sites is a result of the nature of the events or variations in cultural, historical, political and economic contexts in which the hazards occur.
