Social capital and livelihood recovery: post‐tsunami Sri Lanka as a case

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Research limitations/implications Further research should consider influencing factors related to religious organizations and conflict issues in the area. Practical implications 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”. Originality/value 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.