Social Dimensions of Resilience and Climate Change: A Rapid Review

Climate change and its associated challenges may have an impact on people and communities. Studies provide conceptual and empirical insight of the relationship between social capital and resilience. However, the social dimensions of resilience have received little attention in climate change research. This short article provides a rapid review of published studies that investigate the social dimensions of resilience in the context of climate change. A literature search in Scopus was undertaken for this rapid review, using the title search words "Social" AND "Resilience" AND "Climate." The search yielded 26 articles, of which I shortlisted 18 for review that were related to the social dimension of resilience. Based on the findings of the review, I grouped them into three categories: 1) social capital approach, 2) social psychological approach, and 3) right-based approach. The findings reveal a positive association between social capital and resilience, as well as the interconnectedness between bonding, bridging, and linking, which provide the structural foundation for social capital. The social psychological approach, on the other hand, is tightly linked to cognitive aspects of social capital (such as social identity, reciprocity, and shared knowledge of risk and responsibility) that contribute to collective psycho-social resilience. The third perspective is a human rights-based approach to understanding the social dimension of resilience with regard to equity and power while investigating the narratives that normalize inequality and marginalization. In the context of climate change, adaption strategies and resilience-building interventions should be theoretically grounded in the conceptualization of social resilience as a capacity-building process (with reference to agency, participation and empowerment). The bottom-up empirical investigation of social contracts, practices, and experiences using theoretical triangulation and an interdisciplinary research approach is proposed in this rapid review