Enhancing resilience to climate events: A multi-capital approach in social work

Abstract

Climate events have been identified as issues of global concern due to their devastating impacts. Social work seeks to reduce inequalities and promote empowerment to achieve the welfare of individuals and communities. It is, therefore, one of the key professions in reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience to natural hazards. This study explores how social work could enhance individuals’ resilience to climate events through employing the multi-capital approach. This qualitative study uses 43 semi-structured interviews with social workers, non-governmental organisation workers, religious leaders, and service users in Oman. After analysing their experiences thematically, the data indicate that risk is differentially distributed between and within communities. Climate events may affect two communities differently and even people within the same community differently. Based on the concepts of vulnerability and resilience, the impacts of climate events and individual responses would vary based on their capital levels. The findings also indicate that the multi-capital approach can be used as a guiding approach that assists social workers in identifying both strong and low capital and working to strengthen them. Interestingly, although the multi-capital approach does not consider spiritual capital, the findings illustrate that every aspect of human nature must be linked to God in Islamic societies and stresses faith and stability. Some implications for policy, practice, and education have been outlined, such as developing social work curricula by considering the modification proposed to the multi-capital approach. Moreover, integrating spiritual capital into disaster resilience frameworks is crucial for holistic policy development.