How do configurations of social capital shape rural resilience? Group-level differentiation and process mechanisms in a Chinese tourism village following the COVID-19 pandemic

Mainstream social capital theory generally posits that actors with greater stocks of bridging and linking social capital have greater advantages in adapting to and transforming in response to external shocks. However, the resilience trajectories observed in Guzhu Village, China, following the COVID-19 pandemic present a theoretical paradox. Agritainment operators, whose networks were rooted primarily in local acquaintance ties, undertook extensive renovation and upgrading efforts, transforming their businesses from low-end hospitality enterprises into mid-market and upmarket leisure offerings. Conversely, B&B operators, despite their stronger reliance on online travel platforms and closer ties to government actors, became locked into passive recovery. This article develops an analytical framework of initial social capital configurations–processual mediation–resilience outcomes. It argues that social capital configurations constitute only the structural preconditions for divergent resilience outcomes, but that whether the resources embedded in these configurations can be translated into actual resilience depends on the activation or suppression of three process mechanisms: goal alignment, informational incentives, and network reproduction. Drawing on multi-wave questionnaire surveys conducted between 2018 and 2024, semi-structured interviews, social network analysis, and process tracing, the study found that agritainment operators developed an integrated configuration combining strong bonding capital, association-based bridging capital, and weak linking capital, enabling a shift from passive recovery to proactive transformation and, ultimately, the development of evolutionary resilience. By contrast, B&B operators developed a fragmented configuration combining strong linking capital, platform-based bridging capital, and weak bonding capital. Goal misalignment, feedback failure, and impeded network reproduction trapped them in a trajectory of resilience lock-in. These findings challenge the linear assumption that the stock or type of social capital directly determines resilience. They further shift the analysis of rural resilience from the system level to the group level, offering a new explanation for divergent resilience trajectories within rural communities.