Neighbourhood Social Resilience (NSR): Definition, Conceptualisation, and Measurement Scale Development

Resilience studies lack a clear, precise definition of and guidelines on how to measure social resilience and have paid remarkably little attention to social resilience at the neighbourhood scale. This study contributes toward filling these gaps in the literature by developing and empirically testing the neighbourhood social resilience (NSR) model as a robust and reliable measurement instrument that integrates various aspects of this complex concept into one coherent and fine-grained psychometric model. The reliability and validity of the NSR model are empirically tested using questionnaire data collected from 234 respondents in five neighbourhoods of Dunedin city, New Zealand. A more nuanced definition for social resilience is provided at the neighbourhood scale. Results indicate that social resilience is a second-order and multidimensional concept incorporating eight dimensions. Each of these dimensions captures a distinct piece in the jigsaw of social resilience; therefore, failure to incorporate all dimensions may provide an incomplete picture of this complex phenomenon. The results found that of the eight dimensions of social resilience, “social network” is the dimension with the highest explanatory power in defining social resilience. Our research bridges the gap between top-down approach of stakeholders and policymakers and bottom-up perceptions and expectations of residents about social resilience of their urban neighbourhood