The role of community leadership in building community adaptive capacity to coastal hazards – Insights from neighborhood networks in Semarang, Indonesia

Abstract

Coastal communities in the Global South face significant challenges due to urbanization, population growth, and climate change-induced sea level rise. This paper contributes to the study of community adaptation in these contexts by emphasizing the critical role of community leaders in developing, maintaining, and activating community adaptive capacity. Drawing on quantitative data from a household survey and qualitative interviews with community leaders in Semarang, Indonesia, this study identifies and empirically analyzes previously overlooked linkages between community leadership and adaptive capacity. Our key findings demonstrate that effective leadership significantly impacts community adaptive capacity by building social capital, organizing collective action, accessing knowledge, managing communal funds, and representing community interests. Community leaders' influence stems from their network position as brokers and their ability to mobilize external resources and knowledge. Furthermore, we develop an empirically based framework of factors determining community leadership effectiveness, emphasizing the importance of social networks. Factors such as social capital, formal authority, influence, and legitimacy determine the scope of leaders’ actions and resources and are closely connected to the structure and dynamics of social networks. Our research contributes to the literature on community adaptive capacity by underlining the critical role of community leaders and social networks in enhancing community adaptation to natural hazards, with broader implications for coastal communities across the Global South.