Organization-based Social Capital, and Inequity in Disaster Recovery Planning

Social capital scholars have repeatedly highlighted the pivotal roles grassroot organizations play in disaster recovery. While recognized as indispensable to recovery in historically marginalized communities, their role in advancing equitable planning is understudied. This chapter documents if and how organization-based social capital can diminish disparities in knowledge of and power over policymaking processes. The authors review literature on neighborhood organization-based social capital in disasters, synthesize the roles undertaken by different types of neighborhood organizations in recovery, and discuss how roles advance equitable disaster recovery planning. Their review of the literature reveals that organizations play a variety of roles to diminish power and information imbalances in marginalized communities. Roles vary from advocating for policy adjustments to more radically challenging dominant planning narratives. These findings lay the conceptual groundwork on how formal planning processes and grassroot- and neighborhood-based social capital can collectively foster equitable disaster recovery.