Do ICTs Help To Maintain Social Capital In The Disaster Recovery Phase?
A Case Study Of The L'Aquila Earthquake

1. PhD Researcher, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, UK. Email: serena.tagliacozzo.13@ucl.ac.uk
2. Full Professor of Social and Community Psychology, University of Naples Federico II, Italy.

The use of new interactive communication tools, particularly social networking sites (SNSs), has grown considerably in the last couple of decades. According to Boyd and Ellison (2007), SNSs are defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile, ar-ticulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and make visible their social net-works.

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are changing the way in which we communicate and interact with each other (Hu, Johnston & Hemphill, 2013). These communication tools allow for a switch from one-directional communication (from the issuers to the receivers) to multi-directional communication where everyone can spread and exchange information. In addition, with this new form of communication, networks are no longer related to a specific space and the people who live there - they are now outspread networks (Sutton, 2010).

This study examines the role played by ICTs in re-creating places of socialization and maintaining social capital in a post-disaster reconstruction scenario after the disruption of the physical environment that was once important for the creation and maintenance of these relationships. It aims to investigate whether (and how) ICTs can work as communication tools by allowing people that are dislocated post-disaster to maintain contacts with their previous social network and, therefore, to "virtually" restore the broken offline social fabric. First, we will analyze the literature on the role of ICTs, paying particular attention to SNSs for community building and maintenance of social capital. We will then briefly describe how new media have changed the concept of place and social relationships, and why the maintenance of social capital is crucial for disaster recovery. Our preliminary task is to introduce the case of L'Aquila before and after the earthquake of 2009, and the methodology and results of our research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The role of ICTs for community development and maintenance of social capital

Social capital refers to the "resources embedded in one's social networks, resources that can be accessed or mobilized through ties in the network'' (Lin, 2008, p. 51). Some authors (Szreter & Woolcock, 2004, Putnam, 2000) have identified three kinds of social capital: bonding (which refers to the bonds between people who are similar in terms of social identity), bridging (namely the connections between those who are unlike each other yet are 'more or less equal in terms of their status and power) and linking (relationships between people who are interacting across explicit, formal, or institutionalized power). The resources embedded in these networks can work either at the individual or the collective level (Kawachi, Kim, Coutts & Subramaniam, 2004). They are useful in an individual´s personal life, reducing personal stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985), whilst they can also be used to mobilize collective actions and foster civic engagement (Putnam, 1993, 2000). We are interested here in analyzing the first function of social capital, particularly how new media such as social networking sites can support the creation and maintenance of the ties and resources that constitute social capital.

Social networking sites are becoming popular all over the world as they are able to produce instant communication and help people to connect, keep in touch, and exchange information quickly. These tools allow people to create "portable communities" (Chayko, 2009), in the form of groups whose members connect via online and mobile technologies, regardless of the frequency with which they meet on a face-to-face basis. With these tools, social interaction has become increasingly disconnected from the particulars of time and space (Giddens, 1991; Meyrowitz, 1985).

Indeed, these tools have been proven to maintain existing ties within a network (Bonds-Raacke & Raacke, 2010). This is particularly true when physical co-presence is impossible or impractical because of the inaccessibility of physical public locations. For instance, some authors (Ellison, Stainfield and Lampe, 2007; Steinfield, Ellison and Lampe, 2008) have noted that Facebook is able to sustain the relationships between college students and their previous network when they have to move to other locations due to work or study reasons. Further, Facebook has strong technological capacities that bridge online and offline connections (Phulari et al., 2010). More recently, Grieve et al. (2013) demonstrated that Facebook supports social connectivity online, although online and offline connectivity were found to be distinct. The authors concluded that "it seems that Facebook use might provide an alternative form of social connection to the connection experienced in offline environments. If so, the utility of Facebook connectedness may have specific implications for the social bonding of those individuals who are either unable, or unwilling, to connect with others in traditional environments" (p. 608). Services such as email and instant messaging and other ICTs can help people to keep in contact, even if they don't meet very often in the real world. In this sense, they may be able to change the natural pattern of decline of relationships by maintaining relationships that would otherwise be destined to fade away (Cumming, Lee & Kraut, 2006).

Similarly, social networking sites can bring together people that would otherwise not be connected in the real word (Best & Krueger, 2006). In particular, by providing information on other people's interests and hobbies, they may help to convert latent ties (ties that are technically possible but not yet activated socially) into weak and bridging ties, making the interaction between people socially relevant and based on common interests (Ellison et al., 2007, 2010). In other words, SNSs can help reveal the interests and expertise of existing contacts and, by doing so, strengthen these ties on the basis of a common and shared ground (Steinfield, Dimicco, Ellison & Lampe, 2009). The literature on community informatics has largely reported on the use of ICTs for community development, showing that ICTs can foster cooperative behaviors and community interactions around specific social dilemmas (Hu, Johnston & Hemphill, 2013), promote social learning and innovation (Gurstein, 2012) and support cooperative social mobilization (Harlow & Harp, 2012)

Finally, SNSs enable people to access a broad network of contacts from whom to seek information and favors (Jung, Gray, Lamp & Ellison, 2013), to mobilize resources (Ellison, Gray, Lampe and Flore, 2014) and to expand the diversity of their social ties (Hampton, Lee & Her, 2011) hence fostering the "bridging" dimension of social capital (Hofer & Aubert, 2013). Even if some argue that these tools primarily sustain the creation and maintenance of weak ties, the less formal social ties created and maintained through social networking sites could be very important and useful in day-to-day life and crisis situations (Granottover, 1973). Online social interactions with people encountered only on the Internet should be considered a crucial part of one's social capital. Social mobilization and democratic engagement seems, for example, to be supported by the Internet only through interaction with bridging, but not bonding ties (Hampton, 2011).

Information and Communication Technologies: a place to build relationships

In the above section we have discussed how social networking sites can support the creation and maintenance of people's social capital. As we mentioned, with these new technologies, net-works are no longer embedded in a specific place and are turned into virtual communities. The con-cept of place is complex and has been widely debated in the literature. According to Canter (1991), places are a confluence of cognitions, emotions, and actions. Thus, in conceptualizing the term "place" we have to consider the combination of emotions, beliefs, and memories attached to a phys-ical space. In this respect, in order to describe relationships between human beings and spatial set-tings, other more effective concepts have been developed. The concept of "sense of place" (SOP), for instance, refers to the meaning attached to a spatial setting by a person or group (Jorgersen & Stedman 2001) while the concept of "place identity" refers to 'those dimensions of self that define the individual's personal identity in relation to the physical environment' (Proshansky, 1978, p. 155). The combination of beliefs and emotions attached to a place are an integral part of the per-son's identity and are able to create a psychologically significant relationship between the person and the space (place attachment) (Altman & Low, 1992). These concepts, therefore, are more geared towards the description of the complex relationship between a person and a place composed of manifold dimensions, than towards the description of a specific physical space.

Indeed, new interactive technologies have changed the meaning of "place" and " community". There is no unanimous consensus about the extent to which virtual environments are able to reproduce a sense of place. Some of the dimensions of this construct seem to be inherently bound up with physical characteristics of the space. For example, Relph (2007) argues that virtual environments are not able (or are not completely able) to reproduce the genius loci, the spirit of place that lies in natural landmarks or remarkable buildings and structures. However, the extent to which virtual environments can recreate the experience of place is still a matter of debate (see, for example, Turner, Turner & Burrows, 2013; Arora & Khazanchi, 2014).

With respect to this issue, the distinction made by Harrison and Dourish (1996) between "space" and "place" is of particular relevance. While the former is the three-dimensional natural artefact where events occur, the latter is a space endowed with social meaning and cultural expectations. If we consider "the place" in terms of the space where social relationships are built and a community is created and developed, it does not need to be bound to a physical space. Rather, virtual spaces have proven to boost a sense of community, namely a sense of emotive interconnectedness, belonging, mutual trust, and mutual satisfaction of personal needs (Mc Millian and Chavis, 1986), as well as physical spaces (Rovai, 2002). As outlined by Harrison and Dourish (1996, p.9) "non-spatial environments exhibit placeness, too".

In related work, Wellman (2001) argues that the last century has seen a constant shift in the way in which social relationships are built and maintained. Online ties are maintained through a series of deliberate actions (e.g. sending an email to a group of people) while in-person interactions in physi-cal spaces can also occur by happenstance. New means of transportation have allowed for a switch from a neighbour-to-neighbour relationship to a place-to-place relationship, connecting households that are no longer in the same neighbourhood (Wellman & Leighton 1979; Wellman 1979, 1999). Mobile technologies enable us to make a step forward: they "shift community ties from link-ing people-in-places to linking people wherever they are" (Wellman, 2001, p.30). This resulted in the liberation from a physical space and in emphasizing the social dimension rather than the spatial di-mension of the place. In this respect, Cairncross (1997) advocated that new communication technol-ogies have caused "the death of distance" in that they allow everyone to interact with each other regardless of their location in the world. In a more recent study, Mok, Carrasco and Wellman (2009) re-affirmed that new forms of communication supplement, rather than replace traditional communi-cation channels (e.g. face-to-face interactions) and suggested that distance still matters for the inter-actions between individuals, except for those mediated by emails.

A growing but still emerging field of community informatics is the one dedicated to urban in-formatics, an interdisciplinary area that studies how ubiquitous technology changes the way in which public spaces are perceived, used, and socially constructed (Shin & Shin, 2012, Bilan-dzic & Venable, 2011). According to this discipline, social relationships nowadays take place in "hybrid spaces" (De Souza e Silva, 2006) that encompass dimensions of both the physical and digi-tal environments.

In the aftermath of a disaster, the physical spaces that are usually instrumental in fostering social relationships may be inaccessible because of the widespread disruption. This, along with a possible short term or long term relocation of the people affected, may make difficult the maintenance of social capital, which is crucial for community recovery following a disaster.

Social capital in disaster recovery

According to Kaniasty and Norris (1995, p. 1), "disasters impede the exchange of support because they disrupt social networks through death or injury, relocation, changes in routine activities, and physical destruction of environments conducive for social interactions". Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the relocation following a natural disaster and the resulting loss of the community ties are linked to an increase of psychiatric symptoms (Kilic et al., 2006; Najarian, Goenjian, Pelcovitz, Mandel & Najarian, 2001) and health problems (Uscher-Pines, 2009). On these grounds, it has been suggested that the primary efforts after a disaster should be directed towards restoring or maintaining natural communal and social supports and rebuilding social networks and the sense of community.

Disaster research has largely reported on the role of social capital, especially in the disaster recovery stage. In his studies, Aldrich (2010, 2011a,b) noted that the recovery process is widely dependent upon the kind of relationships people can rely on. Analysing the recovery process of three big disasters, these being the Kobe Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, and the Indian Ocean Tsunami (Aldrich, 2010), he found that, even if after Hurricane Katrina the level of financial aid was higher than that in the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake and Indian tsunami, the recovery process in the former was not as vibrant as in the latter disasters. He thus concluded that the variation in the recovery could be caused by differences in community characteristics, such as trust and social capital.

Immediately after a disaster, the first responders are usually local residents and neighbours, and bonding ties provide physical, emotional and financial support in the first instance (Hawkins & Maurer, 2009). Contrary to what is commonly believed in the aftermath of a disaster, we do not revert to panic and selfish behaviours (Fischer, 1998). Decades of studies on human reactions in the event of a crisis or disaster have largely demonstrated that panic is not a common reaction (Quarantelli, 2001; Mawson, 2005; Drury, Cocking & Reicher, 2009). Rather, there is a collective mobilization of resources and people towards the affected area. This is a period known, in disaster management literature, as the "honeymoon phase' (Dass-Brailsford, 2010), when solidarity and mutual helping behaviour between survivors and between survivors and external helpers predominate. However, as the community moves from the response and short-term recovery phase into the longer-term recovery process, the social support around it decreases and affected people find themselves facing the widespread disruption of their social, economic, and physical environment (Kaniasty & Norris, 1995). In this respect, in the long term, bridging social capital plays a primary role in providing the sharing of information, resources, supplies and food, and linking social capital allows for survivors to connect with NGOs and the government. Interactions with external resources and authorities offer a larger support for recovery, and "eliminate vulnerability of livelihood and make a safer and sustainable environment" (Nakagawa & Shaw, 2004). Some negative elements of social capital in disaster recovery should be noted. While bonding ties provide emotional and financial support and security, especially for low-income communities, the lack of resources and social equity within the community persists, and is exacerbated after a disaster, making the recovery process more difficult. Many articles on the aftermath of Katrina amongst other disasters argue that "communities with both local bonding and extra-local bridging/linking social capital demonstrated more resilience than those neighbourhoods solely with bonding ties" (Aldrich, 2011b, p.23; Elliott, Haney, & Sams-Abiodun, 2010).

In spite of being clearly relevant for disaster recovery and community resilience (Norris et al., 2008), disaster researchers have rarely addressed the connection between social capital and place. Cox and Perry (2011) are among the few that have analysed this aspect in the context of disaster recovery. In their study, they describe a socio-psychological process, termed reorientation, that people use to cope with the social and geographical change caused by a disaster. "The reorientation process emphasizes the critical importance of place not only as an orienting framework in recovery but also as the ground upon which social capital and community disaster resilience are built" (p.398). However, the impact of digital technology on supporting the processes of adapting to the loss of relational and geographical spaces is still unclear.

Previous studies on ICTs in disaster recovery

Studies on the use of social media in disaster situations have focused mainly on the response phase. For example in their study on the California wildfires, Sutton, Palen & Shklovski (2008) stressed the ability of these technologies to spread information quickly across a distributed network of people. Other uses of social media during disasters investigated by previous studies include the ability to inform others about one's own safety (Vieweg, Palen, Liu & Sutton, 2008), to send and receive requests for help (Acar & Muraki, 2011), to raise the situational awareness of the relief agencies by providing information on what is happening in the event (Gao, Barbier & Goolsby, 2011; Lindsay, 2011) and to donate and receive donations (Lobb, Mock & Hutchinson, 2012). Additionally, in some cases, such as the Tohoku earthquake that hit Japan in 2011, internet and social media can become prominent as a communication tool during a disaster, since that network outage makes contacts via cell phones impossible (IFRC, 2013; Doan, Vo & Collier, 2012)

Only a few studies have examined the use of social networking sites in the recovery stage for the maintenance of contacts with friends, relatives, and acquaintances after the dislocation and major changes in the social and physical environment produced by a disaster. One of these (Lev-On, 2009) studied the use of the so-called Katif.net website (with some features of a social networking site) set up by an Israeli community forced to relocate after Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005. This tool allowed people to keep their community alive by maintaining contacts with members of their previous social network, and influencing their context by stating their opinions about the disengagement.

Recently, Shklovski, Burke, Kiesler and Kraut (2010) studied the use of information and communication technologies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and found that people used these technologies to maintain a sense of interconnectedness and community during evacuation. Those who remained outside New Orleans used information technologies to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. Nevertheless, "mediated communication was not enough to assuage their sense of loss and maintain their sense of belonging" (Shklovski et al. 2010, p. 14) and the absence of these individuals from the physical environment contributed to them fading out of the community's awareness. Similarly, Semaan and Mark (2011, 2012) analysed the use of Facebook in an Iraqi community dispersed after the war in 2003, as they sought to reconstruct their social scaffolding and create a list of trustworthy people from whom to seek help and information. They concluded that SNSs could support the maintenance of the social infrastructures that might help to overcome the problems caused by the disruption of the physical environment after a disaster or conflict.

It appears then, that there is a growing stream of literature (e.g. Farinosi & Trerè, 2010; Og-awa, 2013, Osterag & Ortiz, 2014) reporting on the use of social media for community building and social mobilization in the wake of a disaster. These studies suggest that digital media support the creation and maintenance of online discussions around topics relevant for community recovery, which then translate into offline social mobilisation and civic engagement.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Research objectives

In the literature review sections we have seen that ICTs, including SNSs, support the mainte-nance of social capital, particularly when face-to-face interactions are made difficult by the frequent relocation of people in the modern world. These technologies facilitate a shift in attention from the physical dimensions of the geographical "space" to the relational dimensions of the socially con-structed "place". But what happens when the physical spaces once conducive to social relationships are suddenly disrupted by a disaster?

In this paper we argue that virtual environments can serve, to some extent, similar functions of sustaining the creation and maintenance of social relationships as the ones previously fulfilled by physical spaces. In the absence of a physical square or road where people can meet, the virtual envi-ronment created by the social networking sites can represent a place for socialization, replacing the unavailable physical spaces. In order to check its validity, we applied this argument to the case of the disruption of the physical environment caused by the earthquake that hit the city of L'Aquila (Central Italy) in 2009.

As we are going to see in the following section, L'Aquila's main socialization point was the historical center of the city, which has also been the area most affected. The disruption of the city center led to the sudden disappearance of the place where the public, social, and working life occurred.

Studies on the use of social media in disaster situations have focused mainly on the response phase. Moreover, the recovery phase represents one of the least understood aspects of emergency management (Berke, Kartez, & Wenger, 1993; Rubin, 1991). The general goal of this study is therefore threefold:

1. To make a contribution to the literature on the disaster recovery phase
2. To make a contribution to the literature on the use of ICTs in disaster recovery
3. To examine whether ICTs can fulfil the same function of sustaining the creation and maintenance of social relationships as the one fulfilled by physical spaces in the aftermath of the L'Aquila earthquake that occurred in Central Italy in 2009:

In particular, the aim of the current research is to explore the use of SNSs by the residents of L'Aquila following the earthquake, in terms of the following purposes:

1. To communicate with others both during the response and recovery phases
2. To search for news both during the response and recovery phases.
3. To keep in touch with relatives, friends, and acquaintances who have been displaced or with whom it is more difficult to meet after the earthquake.
4. To look for information, practical help, or emotional support when facing problems in the recovery phase.

Case study

On April 6, 2009, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit L'Aquila, a city in Central Italy with a population of approximately 70,000 inhabitants. In physical terms, the earthquake was not exceptional (Alexander, 2010) but the vulnerability of the buildings and infrastructure that collapsed caused 305 deaths and 1,500 injuries (Camata, Biondi & De Matteis, 2009). The zones most affected were the historic city center and the surrounding villages. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Government decided to accommodate people in tents and hotels, most of which were located on the coast, far from L'Aquila city (Alexander, 2010). After several months, some of the survivors were accommodated in the houses of Project C.A.S.E. (complessi antisismici sostenibili ed ecocompatibili) and in the M.A.P. (moduli abitativi provvisori) (Contreras, Blaschke, Kienberger & Zeil,, 2014).

These buildings were located very far from the previous center of the city with poor public transport and no nearby services or amenities. As a result, residents needed to rely massively on private cars for transportation (Alexander, 2012) and to travel for a long time to reach public facilities and meeting points. Moreover, in the allocation of transitional housing, little attention was given to the preservation of the social fabric (Alexander, 2012). This situation caused, in the short term, the break-up of families and, in the long term, a more permanent fragmentation of the previous community and a tremendous negative effect on social cohesion, making social gatherings more difficult. According to a Microdis survey (2009), 71% of those interviewed declared that their community had been deeply changed after the earthquake, while 73 % suffered due to the lack of meeting places. Similarly, Alexander (2012) noted that these transitional shelters have led to a substantial break-up of the social fabric and to increased difficulty in recreating a sense of place among citizens.

In addition to the cited dispersion of the previous social fabric, L'Aquila citizens also suffered the loss of the previous meeting points in the city. As already mentioned, the areas most affected by the earthquake of 2009 were the historic center, which was also the place of socialization for the residents. This is well explained by the words of Contreras, Blaschke, Kienberger and Zeil (2013, p.6):

"Comparing the human body and the structure of a city, the central district in L'Aquila is the social, financial, institutional and cultural heart of the city; if the heart is not active, it is not possible to talk about recovery in the city, even if other parts or new parts in the city are active. As in the case of the human body, if the heart is not pumping blood through the vessels, there is no oxygen for the other organs in the body and it will soon die".

Even after several years, part of the city centre is still cordoned off and the recovery process is proceeding slowly (Contreras, Blaschke, Kienberger & Zeil, 2014).

Alongside and simultaneous to the gathering of the interviews presented in this paper, one of the authors also conducted an ethnographic analysis of the post-disaster context, through informal interviews with L'Aquila residents. Results revealed an almost total disruption of the previous meeting places within the city which had produced significant changes in the way in which L'Aquila citizens met and socialized. Indeed, social life in L'Aquila shifted from the streets and ancient roads of the historic center to closed places such as shopping centers (the main one called "L'Aquilone"), private homes, and cinemas. However, these new meeting places were met with hostility from the residents, as they were continuously compared to the joy and warmth of the city before the earthquake "Before, when we went out, we went to L'Aquila center and now we have to go to commercial centers and I don't like to go there…I never go there. If I can avoid it, I don't go there because I don't like these places. (M, personal communication).

The genius loci, the spirit of place that lay in the built squares and roads of the ancient center of the city has long gone, along with the places where socializing once occurred. This is well explained by the words of some residents: "In L'Aquila, it is difficult to meet because there isn't the square anymore, there isn't the corner anymore, there isn't the column of the porch where you .. " (V., personal communication) and "There are no meeting places anymore...before, we were saying, "see you in the square"...you went out and you knew that you could meet friends in the square or in the main road..."(F, personal communication)

This situation has also led to the new necessity for the people of L'Aquila to organize their social gatherings purposely whereas, before the earthquake, socializing was described as "natural, without the need to organize it" because people met casually in the streets of the city center (personal communication). As outlined by Wellman (2001), in-person interactions in public spaces can be led by happenstance. However, the sudden disappearance of these spaces has pushed many people in L'Aquila, as we shall see, to maintain social ties through deliberate computer-mediated actions.

The features of the L'Aquila recovery make it a particularly suitable case study for our research questions.

METHODOLOGY

Instruments and participants

We carried out thirteen (N=13) semi-structured interviews, with key residents of L'Aquila aged 14-53. Open-ended semi-structured interviews are interviews aimed at the following: building a co-partnership with citizens involved in the process and developing a sense of mutual trust with them; allowing the interviewee's discourse to flow freely in terms of their use of language and choice of topics; deepening the field of research by elaborating questions that would enable them to enter the topic of the investigation and bring this to the foreground.

By using this methodology, we intended to analyse, without prejudices, the actual use of new media by a sample of L'Aquila citizens affected by the earthquake that occurred in 2009, and to investigate the deep motivations that sustain this use in the aftermath of this disaster. Our intention was to collect an insight into the social life in L'Aquila after the earthquake and explore how this social life is supported by the virtual environment created by social networking sites. For this purpose, a qualitative tool was believed to be the best option. Before starting the interviews, people were informed about the general goals of the research and verbal and written consent to the participation was collected. Participants were also advised that they had the right to withdraw their participation at any time during the interviews if they felt uncomfortable about any aspect of the interview.

Participants included 6 males and 7 females aged 14-53 (M=30, 3), all of whom were either workers or students in different areas. The distribution of the participants was as follows:-

1. 2 young students under 18 years old
2. 6 participants in the age range 18-29, four students and two workers
3. 3 participants in the age range 30-40, all workers in different sectors
4. 2 participants over 40, all of whom were workers in different sectors

It should be noted that many of the interviewees were young people below 30 years old whereas the average age in L'Aquila in 2011 was 43.5 years (TuttaItalia.it, no date). This aspect should be considered when analyzing the results and it is included within the limitations of this study.

Before starting the interviews, people were asked whether they were social media users. Nine people declared that they used just Facebook. This result is not unexpected as Facebook was the most used SNS in Italy in 2011, whereas the use of Twitter was quite limited (Maggi, 2011). We therefore decided to focus our study just on this social networking site. Four of the people were not social media users at all. Nevertheless, we considered it important to understand their perception of the importance of these technologies as tools that allow for the maintenance of the L'Aquila social fabric in the aftermath of the disaster. Indeed, they declared not to use these tools because they preferred to maintain contacts in person rather than online, and not because they could not see the utility of them.

Interviewing people who were not social media users allowed us to have a different perspective on the topic analysed. The sampling methodology followed a purposive rationale. The Purposive sampling technique allows for the selection of participants who are thought to be relevant to the research (Bird, 2009). Indeed, although too small to be considered representative of the whole population, the sample taken in analysis can provide a good insight of the actual use of social networking sites in the aftermath of the L'Aquila earthquake, as it included people coming from different strata of the population: workers in public and private administration and in the media industry, students from the local universities and high school, and students not residing permanently in L'Aquila. This last category is of particular interest as L'Aquila is predominantly a university city and many students come from different cities and regions of the country. This element is confirmed in a document prepared in 2012 by the L'Aquila City Council stating that, od a population of 24,000 students enrolled at L'Aquila University before the earthquake, only 36.3% were residing permanently in the L'Aquila province (L'Aquila City Council, 2012)

The interviews were collected in L'Aquila during the course of two visits (the first time in January 2011, and the second nine months later, in September 2011). The situation in the city had not changed substantially between the two visits as the reconstruction process was still proceeding. The interviews were conducted in private houses and social centers in L'Aquila; they lasted for between 25 and 60 minutes each, and were audio-recorded and transcribed.

Research questions

We conducted a study using thirteen face-to-face semi-structured interviews concentrating on the following areas:

1. Tools of communication and information during and after the earthquake.
2. Goals for using Internet and social networking sites, along with changes in these goals after the earthquake
3. Use of social networking sites in order to keep in touch with friends and relatives, to ask for emotional support or to search for useful information.

A sample of the questions asked can be found in the appendix at the end of this paper.

Data Analysis

To analyse the interviews, we used an approach based on content analysis (Berelson, 1952). Since there is a dearth of studies on this topic, we performed an inductive content analysis (Lauri & Kynga ?s 2005), where categories are derived from the data and particular instances are ob-served and then combined into a larger whole or general statement (for a description of the process of analysis in inductive content analysis please see Elo & Kyngas, 2008). The open coding and creation of categories was supported by the Maxqda software. Maxqda (http://www.maxqda.com) is a professional software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis. It allows researchers to organize and categorize qualitative data by sorting these into groups and attaching to the single groups specific codes, colours, or symbols. The researchers started with a rough codification of the first interviews. The material of the other interviews was assimilated, when possible, to these catego-ries; otherwise new categories were created. The resulting categories were then grouped in macro-categories. The codifying process was carried out separately by the two authors, after which their results were compared in order to reach a shared set of codes.

Two main macro-categories were identified: 1) Tools of information and communication, which includes two sub-categories: tools of information, tools of communication; 2) Internet and Social Networking Sites after the earthquake, which includes five sub-categories: Internet, social networking sites and changes in the way of use, utility of new technologies for the community, applications of the social networks, obstacles to the use of social networking sites and proposals.. The results of the specified macro categories are discussed below.

RESULTS

Tools of information and communication

Tools of communication

Immediately after the earthquake, people used mobile phones to contact relatives and friends. Alternatively, they went in search of them or obtained information about them from third parties. Mobile phones seemed to be the fastest tool with which to communicate: they are easily portable by people who are fleeing their homes and they enable them to contact others quickly.

Most of those interviewed reported difficulties in communicating via cell phones immediately after the earthquake as the phone lines became overloaded. For this reason, many of them went to ascertain the safety of parents and friends personally. One of the interviewees noted that, in order to fix the problems with the phone lines, the authorities installed some antennae in the tent camp the following morning.

Within hours or days of the earthquake, the Internet became an essential communication tool. Facebook and e-mails were used at that time to verify the safety of relatives and friends. Those who did not have Facebook used e-mail to contact others.

About three or four days afterwards, I connected to the Internet with a portable PC to see my e-mails and I received e-mails from the people who had lessons with me.. (F, 27)

For the others, Facebook was the easiest form of communication, informing others about their safety and searching for news about the safety of friends and acquaintances. Some of the interviews report that, receiving messages from worried friends and acquaintances on Facebook made them feel better because their inner equilibrium was unstable and they needed to know that someone cared about them and their safety.

Two years after the earthquake, Facebook users recognized the importance of this tool for keeping in touch with friends and relatives who were evacuated or with whom it is more difficult to meet. One of the interviewees, a Masters student now studying outside the city of L'Aquila, contends that Facebook was fundamental in order to maintain and continue contacts with his friends. The importance of Facebook to keeping in contact with others is even higher if we consider that many people and families decided not to return to L'Aquila after the earthquake because of the lack of employment opportunities and long-term recovery plans. One of the other interviewees, a high school student, explained that when she came back to school after the earthquake, she was unable to find some of her classmates as their families had decided to move to another city. Therefore, she has used Facebook mainly to keep in touch with her social network that has dispersed after the disasters.

The other people interviewed, non-Facebook users, mainly used cell phones and e-mails to keep in touch with others.

Tools of information

In terms of information tools, people searched for information immediately after the earthquake, switching on car radios, receiving calls from those in the city center or, in the morning, reading newspapers provided by the Civil Protection agency. Many of the interviewees described that they became aware of the seriousness of the situation just by talking over the phone with friends and relatives living in the most affected areas. Because some zones of the city did not report significant damage, many people failed to fully realize the consequences of the earthquake in the very early stage of the emergency. On the morning after, the first pieces of information were provided by the newspapers distributed by the Civil Protection agency, by television, or by the people at the tent camp. Those with Internet access connected to the web via portable PCs. With respect to this issue, one of the interviewees (M, 27 years old) noted that there are fewer people with non-portable computers in L'Aquila now than before the earthquake.

In the weeks and months after the earthquake, the most widely used tool to search for information was the Internet. People used search engines such as Google.com or the website of the Geophysics and Volcanology Institute (INGV) to check recorded aftershocks. Meanwhile, the website of a local newspaper, Ilcapoluogo.it, was constantly updated. These websites were still being used two years after the earthquake by the interviewees, who were seeking news about the reconstruction or about the tremors that continued to affect L'Aquila area. Many of them stated that they kept up to date simply by going around the city and talking with others about the news. Few of them (two interviewees) declared using Facebook as a source of news through links and public pages.

Internet and Social Networks after the Earthquake

Internet

Most of the interviewees were able to connect to the Internet a few days after the earthquake through Internet keys or, more often, from computers at the homes of friends where they were being accommodated. Students from elsewhere returned immediately to their home cities and connected from there. The Internet was used as a tool of communication with others through e-mails and Facebook, and was also used to search for news about the earthquake. People did not describe any significant change in the goal of using this tool but many of them noted that they had connected to certain websites much more often than before. For example, IlCapoluogo.it, a web journal that reports local news, was visited by most of the interviewees in the days after the earthquake for updates on the situation in L'Aquila, and it was still being used for this purpose two years later. One of the interviewees, an employee in a public office in L'Aquila, reported using this website to find out more about orders and regulations after the earthquake. It is worth mentioning that almost all the interviewees declared that, after the earthquake, they constantly checked the recorded aftershocks on the INVG - the website of the Volcanology and Geophysics Institute, which has the role of monitoring seismic warning systems and volcanic activities all over Italy. This could be considered a way of maintaining a certain control over the situation in circumstances where the main feeling is that of impotence:

We are always on the INGV website...yesterday, going on this website, I said to myself that, before the earthquake, nobody knew it…but now we are always on it to find out whether there has been a tremor…(F,32)

Social networking sites and changes in the way of use

Four of the interviewees were not social networking sites users. The most common reason for not having an account was that these people used different ways to keep in touch, preferring "human contact" rather than virtual contact. The others were all Facebook users, although they also have accounts on MSN, which is much less used nowadays than when it first appeared. Facebook was mainly used by these people in order to keep in touch with friends and relatives, and less often to search for news. Among the interviewees, Facebook users referred to a change in the way and the goals of using this tool after the earthquake. Due to the lack of meeting places, Facebook became, for some of them the place to meet with friends. Especially for younger people, the disappearance of the historic center of the city led to the lack of meeting points where they could develop their social relationships. One the interviewees, a 16 years old girl, noted that she and her friends use Facebook much more than before the earthquake, as they now talk via Facebook instead of going into city or L'Aquila center.

As we have discussed in the case study section, several changes in the physical and social environment occurred after the earthquake in the city: the socialization places moved from the ancient streets and squares of the historic center to shopping centers, such as L'Aquilone, built in the surrounding of the city. Nevertheless, for the most part, the interviewees felt a sense of hostility toward these places, comparing the joy of walking in the streets with the sadness and boredom of being enclosed in the commercial center. They therefore prefer to use Facebook to talk and virtually meet friends rather than to go outside in an unfamiliar environment.

We use it more than before, instead of going into city or L'Aquila center we talk through Facebook…Because there is not much desire to go out, so you go on the social network and you talk to your friends there (F,16)

A boy or a girl aged 16, he/she is on Facebook every morning and evening, always...because they are unable to meet their friends as often as before…before, they went to the center of L'Aquila, now they can only go to L'aquilone, but it is a shopping mall and sometimes they get bored, so they are always on Facebook because it is a way of spending time…(F,27)

In this regard, three of the interviewees reported concerns that the use of Facebook since the earthquake may have broken or weakened human contact between people.

Others stated that Facebook had become the main tool for organizing social life and meetings between people. In fact, in complete contrast to the situation before the earthquake, when meeting one another was normal and almost "natural", two years later, social interactions were organized by L'Aquila citizens on a day-to-day basis. In such a situation, Facebook, as a tool for contact between people, enabled them to organize meetings in the real environment. Another person interviewed declared that once Facebook was not the main way to organize a meeting, whereas now 90% of the meetings are organized via this social networking site.

Utility of new technologies for the community

Most of the interviewees recognized the importance of the Internet and social networking sites for maintaining the social fabric in L'Aquila. Indeed, before the earthquake, moving to the city center and meeting each other was much easier. Many people prefer therefore to rely on Facebook to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances rather than to go to physical places difficult to reach without a private car. As noted by one of the people interviewed, the only tool people have in the M.A.P. or in the C.A.S.E. project is Facebook, and they use it to contact friends and to organize offline meetings.

Facebook has been fundamental…because we have kept in touch with the people that moved out via Facebook… (F, 31)

I have noticed that a new internet café has opened in the center and it is always full because, in an area so affected, it is a way of maintaining contact with reality…(M,37)

Now there are many people for whom is difficult to move from a place to another because they don't have a car…before the earthquake you went to the city center, in the square…especially the youngers and the elders…now, if you live 20km from the city center you can't even take the scooter and so many of them use Facebook to keep in contact...

The students interviewed pointed out that the Internet played an important role in sustaining university activities. For example, it has been used to spread and send news about the University to the students after the earthquake and to book guest flats for students from other cities.

Applications of social networking sites

With regard to the use of Facebook as a means of expressing emotions after the earthquake, many of the interviewees declared that they did not use Facebook for this purpose, preferring to express emotions privately. Similarly, only one of the interviewees reported using Facebook to keep herself updated about the situation in L'Aquila. On the other hand, when asked whether they used Facebook to solve practical problems or obtain practical help, many of the interviewees replied that they did not seek help by posting announcements on Facebook but used the facility offered by Facebook to contact others in order to find help amongst friends and acquaintances. In other words, Facebook allowed these people to remain in contact with a broad social network whose members have provided them with useful information to solve practical problems.

I sent private messages through private chat to those I thought might be able to help me...(F,32)

One of the interviewees, a Civil Protection operator, declared that, after the earthquake, many people contacted him via Facebook chat to receive information about the reconstruction process.

I was a sort of "virtual assistant", meaning that people instead of calling me, they sent me a question via Facebook and replied by the same mean…a sort of email...but I think that, doing so, they felt me more as a human being because the emails are very formal..(M, 27)

As we have already mentioned, L'Aquila is a university city where many students used to commute weekly to their hometown. After the earthquake, many of these students returned to their city, also because of the difficulties in finding suitable accommodation in L'Aquila. For them it was therefore difficult to keep updated about their assignments and university activities. Facebook has allowed them to chat with the other students at the university premises and receive updated news.

Obstacles in the use of social networking sites and proposals

People did not report any significant problems in the use of social networking sites, apart from some initial connection problems after the earthquake.

We also thought it would be interesting to investigate where L'Aquila citizens would put cybercafés or spaces with free internet access in the L'Aquila area. Their possible collocation matches the new meeting points: most of the interviewees would put internet cafes in the shopping centers that have sprung up since the earthquake. In the same way, people pointed out the importance of also putting them in M.A.P. and C.A.S.E., where, as they say, they had previously been absent. Others declared that they would also put spaces with free computer and internet access in the city center to "push people to return to the city (F,32)". From these answers, it is clear that, two years after the earthquake, the Internet has become, for L'Aquila citizens, a way of staying in touch with others.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the demonstrated importance of social capital in disaster recovery, we have, in this study, tried to investigate how L'Aquila citizens have used the Internet and social networking sites as new places for socialization, enabling them to maintain their social capital after the earthquake. Indeed, the disappearance of the meeting places within the city has made it difficult to engage in face-to-face interactions. Four of the thirteen people interviewed were not users of social networking sites, while the other nine were all Facebook users. In the following sections we are going to compare the results of our study with the results from other similar studies in order to highlight the gaps filled by this research. We will then emphasise how the results of our study can provide information that is relevant for the development of best practices in post-disaster management.

Conclusions for theory

In the response phase, the communication tool used most by the people interviewed to ascertain the safety of friends and relatives was the cellphone, thanks to its easy portability. In addition, the first contacts with friends and relatives via cellphones were the first means of obtaining information about the situation in the city. This finding matches the results of a study on the California wildfires (Sutton, Palen & Shklovski, 2008), in which most of the (questionnaire) respondents reported having sought information using mobile phones to contact friends or family. Some hours after the earthquake, many of the interviewees connected to the Internet and used Facebook and e-mails to contact friends and relatives. As in the research on the Virginia shootings (Vieweg, Palen, Liu & Sutton, 2008), Facebook has been used as a tool for confirming the safety of people and for reassuring others about one's own safety. Nevertheless, the interviewees have also used more traditional tools to receive news about the situation, such as television, radios, newspapers, and simply chatting with other people. Just weeks after the earthquake, the Internet was used to search for news by people connecting to Ilcapoluogo.it, a constantly updated local web journal, and INGV.com in order to check for aftershocks. These results are substantially comparable with the communication tools used after the Great Tohoku earthquake that occurred in Japan in 2011. In that case, the most used communication tool was the radio (68%) followed by non-smartphone cell phones (38%) and the Internet on personal computers (20%) (IFRC, 2013)

Regarding the use of Facebook in the recovery phase, most of the interviewees recognized that, since the earthquake, Facebook had become a virtual place where people could meet and talk. Consistent with the literature on social networking sites (Bonds-Raacke & Raacke, 2008), the interviewees used this tool primarily to connect and communicate with friends and relatives, especially after the disappearance of their meeting points as a result of the earthquake. In this sense, Facebook has helped the citizens of L'Aquila to maintain social bonding ties with friends and relatives with whom it is much more difficult to meet in person. This is also consistent with a broad range of literature demonstrating the importance of social networking sites in maintaining social ties when physical meetings are difficult or impossible (Lewis & West, 2009; Best & Krueger, 2006). Additionally, Facebook provided the affected people with a broad and diversified network of contacts from whom to seek help and information. Social networking sites facilitate the creation and maintenance of bridging ties (Jung, Gray, Lamp & Ellison, 2013; Hampton, Lee & Her, 2011), which provide the social infrastructures that may help to overcome the problems caused by the disruption of the physical environment and the breakdown of infrastructure following disasters or conflicts (Semaan & Mark, 2011, 2012).

Others have pointed out that, two years after the earthquake, Facebook was the main communication tool, making it possible to organize meetings in person. Since the disappearance of the historic center where people could meet casually, the new need for organizing social interactions was raised. Facebook served as a facilitator of the in-person interactions when these were unable to occur by happenstance due to the disappearance of the meeting points that were once so central to such interactions.

According to the literature on the social networking sites, these tools may be able to change the natural pattern of the decline of relationships, keeping alive relationships that would otherwise be destined to fade away (Cumming, Lee and Kraut, 2006).

From our findings, we acknowledge that the use of new media by the people interviewed in relation to the maintenance of social capital is threefold:

1. to keep in contact with friends and relatives with whom it is more difficult to meet in the physical environment and that can provide emotional and financial support.
2. to keep in contact with acquaintances and people with whom they have weaker ties but that can provide informational and companionship support
3. to organize offline meetings where the disruption of the physical and social environment caused by the earthquake has limited the opportunity to meet by chance.

These findings are not new for the existing literature. The innovative aspect of our study is the examination of these findings in terms of the concept of place, as characterized by the sense of space where social relationships are built and maintained. The aim of our study was to investigate the use of new media as a means of maintaining social capital in a sample of citizens in L'Aquila after the earthquake. In doing so, we intended to test the validity of our argument, namely that new media might create spaces of socialization that are comparable, to some extent, to the physical places that are no longer available as a result of a disaster. From our results, we found that new media have been used by the people interviewed as an alternative place of socialization through which to maintain contact and keep alive their social fabric. In this situation, where meeting places have become inaccessible and the physical environment is unfamiliar because of widespread disruption, Facebook (the social networking site used by the interviewees) provides a virtual space for the maintenance of social capital. New media are the new "squares" for meetings and socialization. This finding is consistent with the words of a blog activist interviewed by Farinosi and Trere (2010) in their study on the political activism on social media after the L'Aquila earthquake:

"The Web was important because obviously the L'Aquila squares do not exist anymore, there are no physical spaces to meet and the multimedia square, the virtual square became Facebook, the blogs and forums where citizens and committees exchange ideas and give appointments"(para 37).

Nevertheless, as already mentioned in the literature (Relph, 2007), it is unclear whether new media are able to recreate the genius loci, the spirit of place that lies in the built forms and landscapes. Natural landmarks and built forms contain the memories of our past, which support the creation of our identity and are not easily replaceable by virtual places. The memory of the city, with its ancient squares and roads remains inherently connected to the memory of one's personal life, as outlined by D. (26 years old, personal communication) "my life has been spent in the historic center, I have attended the nursery, grammar school, middle and high school and university in the historic center, so every day of my life I was in the historic center". If, on the one hand, for those familiar with the use of new technologies, the digital environment can help to resume, to some extent, the relational dimensions of the place, on the other, it is probably not able to recreate the emotional and affective dimensions attached to the spatial settings as described by the concepts of sense of place (Jorgersen & Stedman 2001) and place identity (Proshansky, 1978). However, the extent to which virtual environments can recreate the experience of place is still a matter of debate (Turner, Turner & Burrows, 2013; Arora & Khazanchi, 2014).

Conclusions for practice

Studies on the recovery phase (Aldrich, 2011a, 2011b) have demonstrated that social capital is a crucial element in achieving an effective community recovery after a disaster. Consistent with the existing literature, our findings showed that new media could provide a suitable place to maintain social capital even when physical spaces are no longer available because of the disruption caused by a disaster. Indeed, disaster managers and governmental organizations should fully exploit the potential of new media to support the maintenance of the community's social fabric. New technologies could be developed in the aftermath of a disaster to respond to the community's needs of socialization and social support.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

There are several limitations to this study. Firstly, the data were gathered several years ago (two years after the earthquake), and a follow-up study will probably be required in order to check whether the results of this study are still valid for the current situation in L'Aquila. The generalizability of the results is also affected by the small size of the sample interviewed. It should also be noted that many of the interviewees were young students between 14 and 30 years old and therefore more likely to be familiar with the use of new technologies. The results and arguments of this research need to be expanded and further verified by using different data collection methods, including quantitative surveys able to measure if social media support the different dimensions of the social capital in the post-disaster context. Finally, the research presents a general discussion of the potential benefits of the use of SNSs in the disaster recovery phase, but it does not take into consideration how ICTs might differentially benefit various social groups within a community or how to address the problems of the digital and knowledge divide.

Future directions

Although limited, this research may have the potential to open up an interesting debate on the web-mediated construction of the concept of "place" in the wake of a disaster. To what extent can new media be used to maintain the relational dimension of place after the spatial settings once central for social relationships are disrupted or severely damaged by natural or anthropogenic disasters? Which dimensions of physical spaces can be transferred to the virtual environment? Do disasters always imply a loss of the sense of place, namely of the emotional dimension attached to the spatial dimensions where the events of one's personal life have occurred? If not, which elements in the type/severity of the disaster or in the recovery process management may lead to this? Does the disruption of the physical environment that is important for fostering social relationships automatically lead to people turning to digital media in order to keep alive their social fabric?

Future researchers should analyze further how people use new technologies to maintain their offline social networks after the changes in the physical places produced by a disaster, and how existing technology can be implemented in this direction. Moreover, the relationship between offline and online social networks is a field worthy of further exploration.

REFERENCES

Appendix: Sample of questions asked

1. Which were the main meeting points in the city before the earthquake? Where do you meet now with friends and relatives?
2. Have your relatives/friends been relocated after the earthquake?
3. How did you contact your relatives/friends/acquaintances immediately after the earthquake?
4. How did you gather information on the situation immediately after the earthquake?
5. How have you maintained the contacts with friends/relatives/acquaintances during the period from the end of the emergency phase until now? Has something changed in the way you contact others?
6. How have you kept yourself updated about the reconstruction process?
7. Which were the motivations you used internet/social networking sites for before the earthquake? Have these motivations changed some way after the earthquake?
8. Have you used the social networking sites to express emotions after the earthquake?
9. Have you used the social networking sites to ask for practical help in order to overcome some challenges you had to face during the reconstruction?
10. If you had the chance to put spaces with free computer and Internet access into the city, where would you put them?