The role of social capital in managing risks: a bibliometric analysis and literature review

Disasters and crises affect more people around the world than reported in official documents by national or international agencies. Meanwhile, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, several wars worldwide and other crises expose a large proportion of the entire population to substantial risks, as well as profoundly affecting human health globally. Many of these impacts remain unnoticed by governance authorities, since many coping strategies are based on bottom-up activities rather than top-down policies. This raises the question: how can we be adequately prepared for a next pandemic or other unforeseen extreme events? Social capital could provide some clues for resilient responses that could be integrated in risk planning and management practice. In this paper, a comprehensive review is provided based on bibliometric analysis. A total number of 2872 published articles were documented and classified. In addition, the geographic locations and the institutional affiliations were assessed and visualized. Four salient research themes were identified as follows: (1) Knowledge sources of the research domain; (2) Individual social capital and risky behaviors; (3) Disaster management and resilience building; and (4) Health issues in the COVID-19 Era. This study offered some practical insights for mobilizing and developing social capital in different phases of risk management. Nevertheless, more inter- and transdisciplinary research across domains is needed to articulate a more comprehensive view of the development of social capital in various risk situations.