Examining the effects of the local communities’ social capital on disaster response capacity in Seoul, South Korea

Social capital plays an important role in determining and managing disaster relief at the community level as well as in building and enhancing a community's disaster response capacity. This study measures the level of social capital in local communities in Seoul, South Korea, and examines how social capital affects their capacity to respond effectively in the face of disasters. We developed indicators based on data from the 2017 Seoul Survey and measured three dimensions of social capital (civic engagement, informal networks, and trust) in 360 communities in Seoul using factor analysis. We then analyzed the relationship between the community's social capital and the percentage of disaster relief volunteers as a proxy measure of community disaster response capacity. Further, we examined the effect of civic engagement, social networks, and trust on disaster volunteerism using the Tobit model. The results showed that a given level of social capital within a community is positively related to a high capacity for disaster volunteerism. This implies that communities with high social capital are more likely to have volunteers available to help in response to a disaster, and that the more a given community is invested in community issues and trust its neighbors, the higher its overall disaster response capacity.