Neighbourhood Social Resilience (NSR): Definition, Conceptualisation, and Measurement Scale Development

Taimaz Larimian, Arash Sadeghi, Garyfalia Palaiologou, Robert Schmidt-III

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The literature on social resilience lacks a precise definition of this concept and a clear guideline on how to measure it. Particularly, social resilience at the neighbourhood scale has received remarkably little scholarly attention. This study contributes toward filling these gaps in the literature by developing and empirically testing the neighbourhood social resilience (NSR) model as a robust and reliable measurement instrument that integrates various aspects of this complex concept into one coherent and fine-grained psychometric model. The reliability and validity of the NSR model are empirically tested using questionnaire data collected from 234 respondents in five neighbourhoods of Dunedin city, New Zealand. Furthermore, a more nuanced definition for neighbourhood social resilience is provided. Results indicate that social resilience is a second-order and multidimensional concept incorporating eight dimensions. Each of these dimensions captures a distinct piece in the jigsaw of social resilience; therefore, failure to incorporate all dimensions may provide an incomplete picture of this complex phenomenon. Our research bridges the gap between top-down approach of stakeholders and policymakers and bottom-up perceptions and expectations of residents about social resilience of their urban neighbourhood.
Original languageEnglish
Article number6363
JournalSustainability
Volume12
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • Adaptive capacity
  • Measurement model
  • Neighbourhood scale
  • Social network
  • Social resilience

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