Who Recovers after Climate Disasters? Social Capital, Public Services, and Unequal Community Resilience in China

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Climate disasters increasingly reveal unequal recovery capacities across communities, yet existing research often emphasizes hazard exposure, economic losses, or infrastructure damage rather than the social and institutional mechanisms shaping recovery. This study develops the concept of unequal community resilience to explain why some residents maintain life stability after climate disasters while others experience psychological distress and stronger intentions to leave. Drawing on social vulnerability theory, social capital theory, and urban governance scholarship, we link the China Family Panel Studies from 2010 to 2022 with climate-exposure indicators from ERA5-Land, CHIRPS, SPEI, disaster-event records, and county-level public-service, governance, organizational, and digital-infrastructure data. Fixed-effects estimates show that climate-disaster exposure is associated with lower life stability, higher psychological distress, and stronger migration intention. Mechanism-consistent analyses indicate that community trust, neighbour reciprocity, and public-service accessibility partially account for these associations. Governance capacity, community organization density, and digital infrastructure buffer climate-related losses, though digital protection is weaker among older and less-educated residents. The study theorizes climate disasters as social processes that reproduce or mitigate inequality through social capital, public services, governance, and digital inclusion.</p>