Paper short abstract:

This case study based on ethnographic fieldwork shows how collective spatial discourses shaping the local experience of post-disaster reconstruction and community building are constructed by residents' machizukuri groups in the town of Yamamoto.

Paper long abstract:

This case study research shows how spatial discourses of peripheries and centers of reconstruction are constructed in post-disaster Yamamoto town by reconstruction machizukuri, "town making" or "community building", groups. These discourses shape the local experience of reconstruction as the residents are collectively framing their altered place-bound communities in response to the reconstruction policies and projects in their physical environment.

The triple disaster of 3.11 shook both the built and social environments of local communities in Tohoku. Citizen participation is regarded as an important factor in increasing the sense of place and community and vice versa, and thus plays a significant part in disaster recovery. The importance of local participation, machizukuri groups as its one form, is also stressed in the aftermath of the 3.11. In addition to the co-operative groups initiated by the administration, the concept of machizukuri features also more independent and critical residential groups. The little studied post-disaster machizukuri offers a window to both locational community building as well as to collective action in response to the spatial changes and conflicts brought by the disaster and reconstruction policies.

The focus of this case study, the town of Yamamoto on the Southern border of Miyagi prefecture, suffered greatly in the tsunami. Yamamoto has focused its rebuilding efforts on three new relocated residential areas of so-called compact cities. However, these new nationally promoted urban style compact city areas differ significantly from the rural pre-tsunami residential areas and the realization of the projects has created controversies in the local community.

Based on the qualitative data collected during ethnographic fieldwork in Yamamoto between October 2014 and May 2015, this research introduces the various forms of post-disaster machizukuri in both the tsunami-struck coastal area and the new compact city areas. The spatial discourses influenced by the socio-political context produced by the groups shape the local experience of reconstruction. The research also discusses the difficult balance of top-down planning and citizen participation and how the experience of disaster and reconstruction can produce new spatial conflicts and perceived inequalities.