Toward the Inclusive Resilience for Both Individuals and Community

This presentation focuses on the different kinds of social conflicts between local people/individuals and the communities/local governments arising in the process of disaster rebuilding.  It seems that the cases of Hurricane Katrina and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accidents are so much different, but there are a few similarities between two cases.  One of them is contradiction between community resilience and individual resilience

First, we would like to consider the case, for instance, that the poor and social minority have been excluded in the process of community rebuilding, while community prosperity are achieved to some extent and community resiliency increases in the aftermath of disaster. 

     The city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina could be considered to be one of these cases.  Since Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans has been seemingly better off in attracting new industry and younger generation, although it lost its overall population than 2005.  Over the same period, the population of African Americans is decreased the most among other racial and ethnic populations.  Under New Urbanism, the role of public sector in education system, the medical and welfare services, and housing services have been drastically decreased or extinct.  

     In case of Fukushima, the local governments seem to have a strong and inherent demand of restoring the community as soon as possible, while some families, especially those with small children, may choose not to return with concern of health risk due to radioactive contamination.  The more families choose to stay outside the hometown for their own safety, the less resilient the community will be.  Contradiction between community resilience and individual resilience could happen in both natural disasters and technological disasters.  We will discuss two cases in depth at the presentation.