Residents of poor, rural settings have several potential sources of informal support: political patrons, non-political patrons, family, and the community. This study explores how preferred channels of informal support change in the aftermath of crisis. Following a logic of “safety first,” I argue that individuals exposed to crisis invest in family and community as complementary forms of insurance against future setbacks, alongside their appeals to patrons. Using survey data from respondents living in two localities that happened to face atypical flooding in northern Ghana, and comparing those respondents to residents of two otherwise similar localities that did not face flooding, I show that residents do not instinctively increase their reliance on patrons. Instead, three months after a crisis, they tend to place greater relative emphasis on family networks and stronger community ties. Networks in which the clients themselves have greater control constitute lower-risk priorities in the event of future crises, whereas calamity can highlight the risks of relying solely on patron-client relationships to address critical needs.

贫穷，农村地区的居民有几种潜在的非正式支持来源：政治支持者，非政治支持者，家庭和社区。这项研究探讨了危机后非正式支持的首选渠道是如何变化的。我遵循“安全至上”的逻辑，认为遭受危机影响的个人在家庭和社区进行投资，作为抵御未来挫折的补充保险，同时也吸引了顾客。使用来自居住在加纳北部发生非典型洪水的两个地区的受访者的调查数据，并将这些受访者与其他两个未面临洪水的类似地区的居民进行比较，我发现居民并没有本能地增加对顾客的依赖。相反，危机过后三个月，他们倾向于相对重视家庭网络和加强社区联系。在未来发生危机的情况下，由客户自己控制的网络构成了较低的风险优先级，而灾难可能会突出显示仅依靠顾客与客户的关系来满足关键需求的风险。