Predicting Social Resilience in the Age of Loneliness: The Influence of Governance, Labor, and Moral Culture

• In Event: 40821 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1. Community Response to Collective Harm

Abstract

As converging crises like climate change, inequality, and social disconnection deepen, scholars are renewing interest in ‘community’ to understand belonging and resilience amid widespread disruption. This study empirically examines social resilience using a novel dataset on 348 U.S. Intentional Communities (IC) with over 12,000 individuals. We combine qualitative content analysis with a regression model incorporating structural, moralistic, collectivist, and demographic factors to examine how community dynamics support or hinder resilience and growth under external pressures. Findings reveal the importance of participatory governance and collective work (Socio-Existential Labor) and the establishment of a practiced moral culture (Embodied Morality) as key predictors of community resilience. Findings suggest a negative effect for gender homogeneity. This research contributes to longstanding sociological theory on community by offering new insights into how alternative social formations, or Emancipatory Alternatives (Wright 2013), can foster resilience and social cohesion in a rapidly changing world. We conclude by discussing ICs as a critical laboratory for understanding the mechanisms of social resilience, feelings of contemporary group belonging amid converging crises, and the emergence of emancipatory alternatives to the dominant neoliberal order.

Authors

• Raffaele Sindoni, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

• Justin Farrell, Yale University

• Zachary Herring