Community Engagement, Social Capital and Trust: Findings from the Resilient Communities Project and their Implications for our Understanding of Community Engagement

Matthews R¹*, Satterfield T², Malinick T¹, Enns S¹ and Page J¹

1. Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
2. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

This paper presents findings from the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a multi-phase research program in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Resource communities in this region have seen their economic base in fishing and forestry devastated by declining resources and the impact of the global restructuring of resource industries. Aboriginal people have been particularly negatively impacted.

The RCP is examining the role of social processes in community resilience in the face of such changes. This paper will present data from 2,881 completed questionnaires (60 percent response rate) from 24 communities. These provide quantitative information on social capital, networks, and trust. These data will be supplemented with interview data from approximately 100 residents and community leaders, focusing particularly on the role of community leadership in increasing community engagement, trust, and social resilience.

In our paper, we focus specifically on both formal and informal citizen ‘engagement’, and whether there is evidence that such engagement in civic life provides access to needed social and economic resources. We also examine the relationship between engagement and levels of both generalized trust and institutional trust, and consider the implications of this for community resilience. We conclude by considering the implications of a social capital perspective and a focus on personal engagement in community life for our understanding of community resilience.