Social Capital and Receipt of Formal Recovery Support Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

• In Event: 281 - Regular Session. Disaster 2

Abstract

This article evaluates the effects of personal network characteristics and organizational membership on receipt of formal recovery support following 2010’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill disaster. Previous work studying the role of networks in receipt of formal support has relied upon social-resources theory, whose proponents argue that social networks have effects on formal support receipt through the mechanism of variation in information access and quality. We depart from social-resources theory on two counts. First, we show that variation in information access and quality is not able to consistently explain outcomes across programs and that theorists must consider how meanings given to different programs — resulting from differences how programs allocate resources or preexisting cultural biases against “handouts” — affect individuals’ decisions to pursue formal support and share information in networks. Second, we demonstrate that information on how to access and receive formal support may be less important than the individuals’ capacity, via information derived through his or her social network, to establish a moral footing in the wake of the disaster. Using survey data collected in Franklin County, Florida, in the wake of the oil spill, we test our arguments using logistic regression analyses.

Authors

• Kyle Puetz, University of Arizona

• Brian Mayer, University of Arizona