RAPID: Disasters, Resilience, and Vulnerability of Fishing Communities in Post-Tsunami Japan

美国罗格斯大学（Rutgers University）的Bonnie J McKay博士和东京大学社会科学研究所的Satsuki Takahashi博士将共同研究在最近的地震、海啸和核电危机中受损的日本沿海渔业城镇的重建工作。研究的重点将是自然灾害和人类灾害如何影响社区的反应。以前关于灾害、脆弱性和恢复力之间关系的研究有不同的方向，这取决于灾害是由人为还是自然机构造成的。在这些说法中，自然灾害鼓励社区共同努力，在未来发展更好的系统，而人为问题，如空气和水污染，不成比例地影响脆弱社区，并限制他们的重建能力。该项目将以社会科学理论为基础，对复原力、脆弱性和自然-文化关系进行研究，研究双重（自然和人为）灾害的文化和政治后果。研究将包括历史和民族志实地考察，包括档案研究、开放式和半结构化访谈以及参与者观察，研究人员将在两个日本渔村进行基线数据研究。这项研究是由美国国家科学基金会的快速反应研究（Rapid）计划支持的，该计划用于在数据、设施或专业设备的可用性或访问方面具有严重紧迫性的项目，包括对自然或人为灾害和类似意外事件的快速反应研究。通过在灾难发生后的五个月内解决日本沿海地区的反应，以及几个月后的后续研究，该项目将对随着时间的推移可能发生的任何变化保持敏感。它将调查对这场非同寻常的灾难的早期和中期反应，以此来阐明“自然”和“人为”危害、复原力和脆弱性之间的复杂关系，为研究人员和政策制定者提供重要的经验教训。

Dr. Bonnie J McKay (Rutgers University) and Dr. Satsuki Takahashi (Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo) will undertake joint research on the rebuilding efforts in Japanese coastal fishing towns damaged by the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power crisis. The focus of the research will be on how combined natural and human disasters affect community responses. Previous research on the relationships between disasters, vulnerability, and resilience have led in different directions, depending on whether the disasters are understood as caused by human or natural agency. In these accounts, natural disasters encourage communities to work together to develop better systems in the future, while human-made problems, such as air and water pollution, disproportionally affect vulnerable communities and limit their ability to rebuild. Building upon and contributing to social scientific theories on resilience, vulnerability, and nature-culture relationships, this project will investigate the cultural and political outcomes of dual (natural and human-caused) disasters. The research will comprise historical and ethnographic fieldwork, including archival research, open-ended and semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, in two Japanese fishing towns for which the researchers have baseline data.This research is being supported through NSF's Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program, which is used for projects having severe urgency with regard to availability of or access to data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural or anthropogenic disasters and similar unanticipated events. By addressing the responses in coastal Japan over five months shortly after the disaster, with follow-up research several months later, this project will be sensitive to any changes that may occur as time passes. It will investigate early and middle-term responses to the extraordinary disaster as a way to shed light on the complex relationships among "natural" and "human" hazards, resilience, and vulnerability, offering important lessons for researchers and policymakers.