Natural Disasters As a Catalyst for Social Capital: A Study of the 500-Year Flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Kevin F. Adler

doi:10.5771/9780761864677

Summary

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.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2015
Copyright Year: 2015
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7618-6466-0
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7618-6467-7
Publisher: Hamilton Books, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 98
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
1. 1. Why Study Disasters? No access
  2. Why Study Social Capital? No access
  3. Intersecting Two Research Canons No access
  4. The Cedar Rapids Flood of 2008 No access
  5. Overview No access
2. 1. What Is a Natural Disaster? No access
3. 1. What Is Social Capital? No access
  2. The Structural and Cultural Aspects No access
  3. Is It a Private or Public Good? No access
4. 1. Social Capital as the Commons No access
1. 1. A Perfect Storm No access
  2. A Perfect Response? No access
  3. An Imperfect Recovery No access
  4. The Community Responds No access
2. 1. Social Capital before the Flood No access
  2. Social Capital after the Flood No access
  3. Four Outlooks, Two Themes No access
  4. Strengthened Community: We Are All in the Same Boat Together No access
  5. Strengthened Community: Reevaluations Will Lead to Social Progress No access
  6. Weakened Community: Neighborhoods Were Decimated No access
  7. Weakened Community: New Rifts Emerged No access
1. 7 Two Cities? No access
2. 1. Background Characteristics No access
  2. Structural Aspects of Social Capital No access
  3. Cultural Aspects of Social Capital No access
  4. The Current, Contextually-Specific Situation No access
3. 9 Conclusion No access
Appendix 1: Research Design No access Pages 73 - 84
Appendix 2: Maps No access Pages 85 - 88
Notes No access Pages 89 - 92
References No access Pages 93 - 98