Dangers to going it alone: social capital and the origins of community resilience in the Philippines

Abstract

Robert Putnam's influential article ‘Bowling alone: America's declining social capital’ puts forward a number of possible factors to explain the decline of civil society in the USA. Many of these same forces are also at work in America's erstwhile colony in Asia, the Philippines, where almost the opposite outcome is true if one can measure such things as social capital by the activity of formal and informal associations and networks devoted to mutual assistance. Unlike Americans, however, Filipinos are exposed to a much higher degree of everyday risk. This article traces the evolution of mutual benefit associations and networks and suggests that it is in precisely those geographical regions most exposed to personal misfortune and community danger that they proliferate most readily.

Pragmatic Philanthropy

“…Volunteers often helped with construction of public infrastructure projects such as churches, schoolhouses, streets, plazas, and cemeteries. 27 In fact, this domestically bred practice of bayanihan (assuming another's burdens) was more commonplace than religious associations exported by Catholicism and Spanish colonialism. 28 This unique history of alleviating fellow community members' hardships demonstrates the Filipinos' deeply ingrained fondness for community welfare, manifested in both the language and village-level volunteerism.…”

“…Not only did these religious associations fulfill their basic duties of arranging town festivals in honor of saints and ensuring the observance of Christian morals, but they also behaved like charitable groups by providing free labor and money to their immediate communities in times of crisis. 30,31 In addition to these charitable and social imports, Catholic missionaries appended the Western notion of kawanggawa (charity) to the Filipino dictionary of doing good.…”

Old Money—The History of Giving in Asia

“…Not only did these religious associations fulfill their basic duties of arranging town festivals in honor of saints and ensuring the observance of Christian morals, but they also behaved like charitable groups by providing free labor and money to their immediate communities in times of crisis. 30,31 In addition to these charitable and social imports, Catholic missionaries appended the Western notion of kawanggawa (charity) to the Filipino dictionary of doing good. 32 The American colonial government further facilitated the progression of Philippine civil society in its resemblance to contemporary nonprofit organizations and foundations.…”

“…35 More sophisticated, larger organizations with written constitutions-such as the Society of the Poor-also came into being. 36 Furthermore, Americans brought over to the Philippines their own non-government organizations like the American Red Cross and the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, which were known to receive philanthropic support from the local elite. 37,38 The Philippine Corporation Law of 1906 further encouraged nonprofit groups by giving them legal recognition along with proactive government funding (2.2 percent of the government's annual expenditure at the time) for local associations that focused on health services.…”

Coastal Cities and Environmental Change

“…Greg Bankoff has examined how the poor of the Philippines, who live in one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, have a long history of forming self-help networks and organisations to cope with natural hazards that are 'simply a fact of life', building up a culture of community resilience. 44 This grassroots approach to disaster preparedness led, for example, to the establishment of the Citizen's Disaster Response Center in Manila in 1984. Drawing on local environmental knowledge, it offers disaster preparedness training programmes to vulnerable communities as well as emergency relief in disaster situations, and it has since expanded into a countrywide network of affiliated centres.…”