Ubesingha, B; Ofori, G; Agyekum-Mensah, G and Frings, D (2026) Post-disaster reconstruction and ethics: The power of social capital. Buildings & Cities, 7(1), pp. 425-444. ISSN 2632-6655
Abstract
The rising frequency of disasters devastates human settlements, making ethical post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) vital. While disaster scholarship engages with ethics and social capital, the built-environment literature remains focused on technical approaches, leaving the ethical role of social capital unexplored. This study investigates the influence of social capital on ethical PDR, drawing on interviews (n = 33) with professionals in Italy, Mozambique, Nepal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Findings reveal the duality of social capital, identifying seven ethical challenges, including socially embedded corruption, gender disparity and dependency, and six measures to strengthen ethical practice, such as building social trust, community empowerment and leveraging emotional connections. It also reveals how networks within social capital and the cognitive dimension affect ethical PDR. This research contributes to the built-environment literature by highlighting its interdisciplinarity with social capital theory, dependency theory and gender studies. Furthermore, it offers insights for policy and practice.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | built environment; community empowerment; disaster reconstruction; disaster recovery; ethics; post-disaster reconstruction; professionalism; social capital |
| Index terms: | professionalism, corruption, Italy, drawing, disaster recovery, social capital, empowerment, interview, disparity, dimension, Sri Lanka, built environment, Nepal, post-disaster reconstruction, ethics, Indonesia, reconstruction, dependency theory, Mozambique, social trust |
| Subjects: | professional ethics, social justice, building construction, Geography, theoretical framing, ethical practice, infrastructure and transport systems, emergency and crisis management, sociology, professional development, management, post-disaster and reconstruction, health monitoring assessment and metrics, technical documentation, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Ethics, Legal Issues, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Human Resources, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Information Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here