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. 2022 Sep:77:102870.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102870. Epub 2022 Jul 20.

Salir Adelante: Social capital and resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina

Eric D Carter  1 , María Laura Cordero  2
Affiliations

Salir Adelante: Social capital and resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina

Eric D Carter et al. Health Place. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has stimulated new appraisals of how social cohesion, including neighborhood-level social capital, fosters resilience in the face of crisis. Several studies suggest better health outcomes in neighborhoods with higher level of social capital, in general and during the pandemic. Building on a growing body of research which suggests that those who live in close-knit neighborhoods have fared better during the pandemic, this article analyzes how social capital influences individual and collective perceptions and attitudes about the experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic in Tucumán, Argentina. To assess this question, we used a mixed-methods approach, combining focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and an online survey (n = 701 respondents) conducted in September 2021. We find widespread experiences of resilience in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in spite of difficult socioeconomic conditions and perceived poor government performance. Results from logistic regression analysis indicate that perceptions of high neighborhood social capital are associated with more positive outcomes in many dimensions, including personal resilience, ability to cope with uncertainty, perceptions of community solidarity, and reported compliance with public health measures. We further argue that conceptualizations of social cohesion need to be adjusted to local or national-level cultural norms to accurately capture the experience of countries of the Global South.

Keywords: Argentina; Community resilience; Covid-19 pandemic; Latin America; Social capital; Social cohesion.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Pandemic containment measures during 2020 in the San Miguel de Tucumán metropolitan area. Note: Pandemic containment measures: health checkpoints (A), police checkpoints (B, D, F), spontaneous neighborhood barricades (C, E). Source: Own elaboration based on La Gaceta (2022).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Personal experience of the pandemic (n = 701) Source: Own data (2021).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Perception of compliance with public health measures at household, neighborhood, and general society levels (n = 701) Source: Own data (2021).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Satisfaction with Government Performance (n = 701) Source: Own data (2021).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Pattern of Responses in selected items by Perceived Neighborhood Social Capital Group (PNSC).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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