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The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the extent to which recovery capital can provide a theoretical and practical way in which to explore, explain and communicate Therapeutic Community (TC) processes and practices.

This is a 31-month ethnographic study of one situated residential TC in England.

The findings are usefully thought out as parallels, process and progress. Parallels can be drawn between the recovery capital literature and longstanding TC principles and prescriptions. The term process is significant as it illustrates how concepts proposed by the recovery capital literature can be employed, alongside traditional TC ideals, to create a practice-focussed framework that is able to open up day-to-day processes and communicate (within and beyond the TC movement) how and why TCs provide an environment that is conducive to recovery. The ethos and application of the term progress illustrate the fundamental premise of this paper. Recovery capital provides a more contemporary way in which to understand and communicate the work that takes place in a TC.

Synthesising the concepts proposed by both the TC and recovery capital literature provides a contemporary, practice-focussed framework for the TC, thus re-enforcing the modalities place within an increasingly competitive field.

Synthesising the concepts proposed by both the TC and recovery capital literature provides an original, contemporary, practice-focussed framework for the TC, thus re-enforcing the modalities place within an increasingly competitive field.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how people with problematic drug use access positive social capital. Social capital is defined as relations that provide valuable resources to individuals through participation in social networks. People with low-socioeconomic status remain at a disadvantage for acquiring positive social capital, a component of recovery capital. The concept of social recovery emphasizes the relational processes of recovery.

In-depth life history data were collected from 29 individuals who used heroin, cocaine, crack, or methamphetamine for at least five years, have less than a high-school education, and unstable employment and housing. Qualitative data were coded for social networks accessed throughout the life course, distinguished by bonding, bridging, and linking social capital.

Social networks included drug treatment programs; non-drug-using family and friends; religious/spiritual groups; workplace networks; and social clubs/activities. Bonding and/or bridging social capital were acquired through treatment, family and friends, religious/spiritual groups, workplaces, and social clubs. Linking social capital was not acquired through any social network available, and many barriers to accessing mainstream social networks were found.

This is a small study conducted in the USA.

Social recovery is proposed as an analytical tool as well as for developing prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies.

A greater focus on social recovery is needed to achieve sustained recovery for individuals lacking access to, and engagement in mainstream social networks.

This paper further develops a new conceptual framework to use in recovery research and practice.

Peer harm reduction programmes engage service users in service delivery and may help peers to develop employment skills, better health, greater stability, and new goals. Thus far, peer work has not been discussed as an intervention to promote recovery. The purpose of this paper is to provide findings related to two research questions: first,do low-threshold employment programmes have the potential to contribute to positive recovery capital, and if so, how? Second, how are such programmes designed and what challenges do they face in supporting the recovery process?

Using a community-based research approach, data were collected at a Toronto, Canada community health centre using in-depth interviews with peer workers (n=5), staff (n=5), and programme clients (n=4) and two focus groups with peer workers (n=12). A thematic analysis was undertaken to describe the programme model and to explore the mechanisms by which participation contributes to the development of recovery capital.

The design of the Regent Park Community Health Centre peer work model demonstrates how opportunities for participation in community activities may spark cumulative growth in positive recovery capital within the community of PUDs. However, the recovery contagion of peer work may lose momentum with insufficient opportunities for new and experienced peer workers.

Using the concept of recovery capital, the authors demonstrate how low-threshold employment interventions have the potential to contribute to the development of positive recovery capital.

Social capitals in a community are in the form of bonding, bridging and linking through social networks. This paper aims to determine the role of social capital in the recovery process of cultural heritage sites. It identifies the existing social capital and the role of community.

The paper is based on the existing literature reviews complemented by the questionnaire survey. Three disaster-affected cultural heritage sites in Kathmandu were selected for the study. The questionnaire survey and group discussion with 300 disaster survivors were conducted.

This paper discusses social capital and its limitations for recovery. It proposes a new model of disaster recovery based on social capital and community.

This research is based on the region with high social capital. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test in the low social capital community.

The approach of disaster recovery discussed in this paper can be implemented in the cultural heritage rebuilding after the disaster.

This paper is based on social capital and community involvement. This paper identifies the importance of community involvement in the recovery.

The paper identified that during the recovery, in addition to social capitals, the role of community participation is unavoidable. This paper demonstrated how recovery is complicated despite external resources without community participation.

This study examines the recovery of households after disasters from the sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) perspective.

This study analyzes the perception of recovery by using a longitudinal household survey data set collected from a Chinese county devastated by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The analysis compares the changes of livelihood capitals (financial, natural, physical, social, human) between 2012 and 2009 and recovery perception.

The results demonstrate that both the current status of financial, natural, and social capital and the changes of the capitals between 2009 and 2012 are positively correlated with the perceived level of recovery. The associations between the current status and the change of physical capital and recovery perception are insignificant. In contrast, with a greater change of human capital between 2009 and 2012, participants have a lower perception of recovery.

By investigating a longitudinal data, this study indicates that (1) household recovery should be considered as multidimensional, (2) the SLA could be a feasible framework to measure recovery, and (3) individual's recovery perception is dependent on the various dimensions of recovery measures.

Floods are among the most significant and frequent hazards to affect communities in the downstream part of the Ba River in Western Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. They often leave in their wake displacements and death putting thousands at risk of sliding into poverty. Using the recent 2009 and 2012 floods, we examine how social capital aids in post-disaster response and recovery among residents in five selected villages in the downstream communities of the Ba River. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey administered to 97 households and semi-structured interviews with a further 20 respondents. It is conventionally believed that moving supplies, aid and expertise into flood-affected areas offers the best path to effective response and recovery. By contrast, our results indicate that residents of downstream communities in Ba District are using four approaches to create and deploy social capital among them to facilitate disaster response. The patterns of social capital used for effective response include practices of search and rescue, information, mutual assistance and commercial cooperation. Such strategies help to build resilience at household and community levels and reduce risks of loss of life and costly damage to property. The findings can be used to generate policies concerning the integration of social capital as a component of flood disaster response and recovery mechanisms.

Recovery is a central component of UK substance misuse policy, however, relatively little is known about the views and meanings of recovery by those experiencing it. The purpose of this paper is to explore these factors, and understand how service user experiences align to current understandings of “recovery capital”.

This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 32 individuals from six UK recovery communities, including those commissioned by a statutory service (n=8) and a peer-led recovery community (n=24).

Meanings of recovery differed between people in abstinence-based communities and those not; however, all had consistent views on their own recovery outcomes and the benefits they believed recovery brought. All viewed recovery as a process; a continuous journey with no end-point. Internal motivation, peer support, social networks and daily structure were integral to supporting individuals achieve and maintain recovery. Key benefits of recovery reflected recovery capital and included positive relationships, sense of belonging, increased self-worth and confidence, employment and education.

This research shows that recovery experiences and outcomes are not centred entirely on the individual but are wider, more holistic. Maintaining recovery involves being connected to themselves and to the wider environment: family, friends, peers and society. Although the recovery capital model has many elements that were discussed by the participants of this research, the discourse they used does not align with the model. To validly measure and quantify recovery outcomes, individuals need to identify with the measures themselves.

From policy and commissioning perspectives, these findings suggest benefits of recovery that were viewed by participants as indicators of success: demonstrate elements which support recovery; and highlight key social value outcomes which people attribute to recovery.

These “softer”, qualitative benefits should be considered by policy-makers, commissioners, statutory and non-statutory services in order to evidence outcomes. However, it should also be recognised that a temporally static approach to assessing recovery may be in contradiction to the meaning and perspectives held by those in recovery communities who conceptualise it as a long term and ongoing process.

This paper adds to understandings of experiences and meanings of recovery, with a particular focus on the measurement of outcomes and their meanings, and the role of abstention and continued drug use within the recovery process.

There is considerable literature indicating the importance of social connectedness and its relationship to wellbeing. For problem substance users, a similar literature emphasises the importance of the transition from a social network supportive of use to one that fosters recovery. Within this framework, the therapeutic community (TC) is seen as a critical location for adopting a transitional identity (i.e. from a “drug user” to a “member of the TC”), as part of the emergence of a “recovery identity” following treatment. The purpose of this paper is to outline a model for conceptualising and measuring identity based on the theories of social identity and recovery capital, and pilots this model within a TC setting.

A social identity mapping was used with TC residents to test their identification with “using” and “TC” groups, and their relationship to recovery capital.

The network mapping method was acceptable to TC residents, and provided valuable insights into the social networks and social identity of TC residents.

This paper explores issues around mapping social identity and its potential in the TC and other residential settings.

The paper integrates a number of conceptual models to create a new framework for understanding transitions in social networks during treatment and reports on a novel measurement method underpinning this.

This paper aims to focus on the relationship between the people's perception of livelihood recovery and micro‐social capital to seek more effective disaster support at the community level.

The household survey was conducted for a randomly selected total of 190 households in two divisions of the Ampara District of the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The quantitative analysis design captured the extent to which both cognitive and structural social capital factors prescribe people's overall perceptions of livelihood recovery.

The factors which best prescribe people's perceptions of livelihood recovery are formal network in the community, and leadership and trustship of community‐based organizations. The negative coefficient for newly established community‐based non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) after the tsunami assumed a serious aspect of “élite capture”, which implies a dark side of collective action with semi‐forced participation. Participatory design process in the organizations was another negative factor for livelihood recovery.

Further research should consider influencing factors related to religious organizations and conflict issues in the area.

Disaster support for livelihood recovery at the community level needs serious consideration about social factors and power structure of the community, and careful design of a participatory approach to reduce the risk of “élite capture”.

The research facilitated a quantitative analysis on social capital and livelihood recovery, which may be quite rare, and highlights the issue of effectiveness of disaster support at the community level.

Disasters shape the development of communities and societies not only physically but also socially. This chapter provides some quantitative evidence to this effect by examining changes in social capital in communities affected by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China.

A two-wave, longitudinal household questionnaire survey data set was used for analysis. The baseline data were obtained in January, 2009, around 8 months after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, adopting a stratified sampling method within a county severely disrupted by the earthquake. A ­follow-up survey with the same households was conducted in the summer of 2012. Finally, 415 household questionnaire surveys from nine communities within the county were collected for analysis.

Overall, it can be concluded that social capital was strengthened in the post-disaster recovery process in the survey area. Social capital was measured according to three dimensions: (1) affiliation with organizations, (2) the degree of available social support, and (3) the degree of social cohesion within communities. It was found that the average degree of social capital increased during the recovery process, with a decrease of social capital inequalities between different families. More specifically, although informal personal networks were found to be the most prominent sources of social support, the support provided by formal organizations played a relatively more important role immediately after the catastrophe, given that most of the personal networks were also affected. Community cohesion was also found to have increased, with a decrease of standard deviation in the recovery process. This chapter suggests that disasters could generate positive effects rather than negative ones alone. Stronger and more tightly knit communities could be built in the disaster recovery process, if appropriate policies and methods are implemented.