Paper Short Abstract:

We draw on ethnographic research in southern Japan to show how citizen science operates as a paradigm of knowledge parallel to official expertise. Our talk invites reflection on disaster management and collaboration between government and civil society in building disaster resilient communities.

Paper Abstract:

In summer 2020, record rainfall caused extreme and unexpected flooding in southern Japan. In the Hitoyoshi-Kuma region, citizen scientists (Irwin 1995; Polleri 2019) from the local non-profit organisation (Tewatasu-kai) documented the scale and impact of the disaster by collecting a wealth of empirical data during the flood and the weeks that followed. The report based on this material has been offered to the local authorities as knowledge to be used in planning future flood prevention measures. However, as it presents alternative views to the official assessment of the cause and course of the flood, the government refuses to recognise the legitimacy of citizen science and thus to address any of the concerns raised by its analysis. Instead, the authorities impose their narratives about the floods, which serve to legitimise the implementation of centrally planned prevention and recovery policies.

This presentation draws on long-term ethnographic research conducted in the Hitoyoshi-Kuma region to explore the ways in which disaster knowledge is produced and operated in post-disaster contexts. We will demonstrate how citizen science develops and operates as a parallel paradigm of knowledge that is undermined by government expertise. This leads to conflict and an increased sense of insecurity within the community, which in turn weakens their resilience to future disasters. Discussing the production and operation of competing, parallel framings of disaster, invites broader reflections on the approach to and management of disaster and its aftermath, on cooperation between government and civil society in building disaster-resilient communities, and neoliberal governance of vulnerable groups.