The Social Networks of Resilience: A Technique for Rapid Appraisal of Community Network Structure

• In Event: 189 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Urban Crises and Recovery

Abstract

Residents of communities recovering from disasters rely on both formal and informal relationships for tangible and emotional support. The composition and structure of these relationships vary from one person to another, and we expect that people adopt different coping strategies based upon the availability of resources in their networks. We present a new approach to network measurement where we collect personal network data from key stakeholders in a Gulf Coast community representing people they could rely upon after a disaster. Respondents provide information about each alter and about the social ties among alters which are used to overlap these personal networks and thereby understand the network structure of the community. We examine which combinations of personal networks best represent the characteristics of the whole network. Our goal is to develop a protocol for rapid appraisal of community social structure that can be generated quickly and with the least respondent burden. These methods may be extended to the study of network structure of communities more generally.

Authors

• Kyle Puetz, University of Arizona

• Brian Mayer, University of Arizona