Personal Networks in Disaster Contexts

Personal Networks in Disaster Contexts. The case of Colombia, 2010-2011

An individual is defined, in part, by his or her connections to others. When an individual loses such connections, he or she experiences a displacement of personhood and enters in a geographical, political and social space of redefinition. In this sense, victims of natural disasters often lose the connections they had created within their native social system and face the daunting need to re-establish a life, a task that requires them to rebuild the personal networks that have been fractured by the disaster. In this blog post I want to explore how a network analysis help us to understand such a reality. 

As a result, catastrophic events tend to reduce victims’ social connections. However, these results vary depending on the immediate and long-term impact of the event (Kaniasty and Norris, 1993). Studies carried out in Mexican states affected by floods and land-based displacements in 1999 found a significant reduction in social integration among communities, conditions that were exacerbated for women and populations with low levels of education (Norris et al., 2005). People affected by natural disasters activate or resume relationships with family members immediately after a disaster because of the needs generated by this type of crisis (Varda et al., 2009). The personal networks that people form under these conditions seem to affect the functionality of the relationships developed. Hurlbert, Haines and Beggs (2000) found that after Hurricane Andrew, in the United States, the affected victims in the United States adopted a diverse range of personal networks. However, individuals who gained more centrality belonged to networks with dense structures that included gender diversity and relationships with family members and young people. The networks that lacked these characteristics provided a reduced level of informal support. In 2011, an ex post-facto study was developed to describe the personal networks characteristics of victims of natural disasters based on data collected from ninety-four respondents affected by floods in Manatí-Colombia between 2010 and 2011, which left 3,893,087 victims according to the High Council for Region and Citizen Participation (ACRPC, 2011). The results showed that personal networks in this context present a heterogeneous composition. They are primarily composed of family members, followed by neighbors and friends, showing a tendency to have a higher proportion of female than male alters (members of the network) with females almost tripling the number of males. The results also reveal a preference for local contacts (contacts from the affected region) and few ties with external contacts (contacts from a different municipality, city or country).

The post-disaster structure of personal networks showed high density and low levels of direct contacts. However, actors in the network were moderately likely to act as intermediaries between other actors. It was also observed a moderate trend in the levels of centralization, where social control and participation are dispersed throughout the structure. ‘Popular’ members who centralized the flow of relationships were less prominent in these networks.

This suggest that in emergency situations, personal networks are placed under immense pressure. This strain weakens certain ties, affecting relationships that typically provide companionship, emotional support, cognitive guidance, social regulation, material help and access to new contacts within the network. This leads to a state of crisis that endangers individuals’ psychosocial identity and their ability to functionally adapt to the consequences of the natural disaster. In this study, the social structures of the participants performed moderately in the indicators for interaction and social relationships. The results suggested that disaster victims experienced less control over their relationships and were less able to expand their social ties and exert social influence, all of which allow individuals to achieve more dynamic relationships.