ORI Seminar Series: Dr Lin Cassidy

This morning, ORI Research Scholar, Dr Lin Cassidy delivered a seminar on "Understanding Household Connectivity and Resilience in Marginal Rural Communities through Social Network Analysis in Habu Village, Botswana", in which she
examined resilience and vulnerability seen as the positive and negative dimensions of adaptability. However, poor, marginal rural communities confronted with the vagaries of climate change, will need to become more resilient if they are to survive and thrive. The paper hypothesizes that households with greater social connectivity have greater resilience, to deal with shocks such as human illness and death, crop damage and livestock disease. The entire community of Habu was surveyed and results show that gender, age of household head and household size were positively correlated with social connectivity. Further analysis indicated that those households that are more socially networked are likely to have a wider range of livelihood strategies, greater levels of other forms of social capital, greater overall capital, and are therefore more resilient.