Pathway of adaptation to community relocation: Prospects and limitations of community-centred planning

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This paper explores the long-term recovery process from planning to resettlement in the case of community relocation in the Koizumi district, which implemented relocation programme with a strong initiative of local residents against the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Through interview investigations and using pathway framework which explained the community recovery process as pathway, this study shows that the gradual shift in institutionalisation of local residents progressing the project from for the community to for the project implicitly and inevitably has affected the community's capacity despite the adoption and presence of a community-centred approach in the steps of the recovery efforts. The application of the community-centred approach may frame the relocation planning in consideration of the local community, but there is also a concern that it will inevitably gain authority within the community in the form of public policy. In other words, institutionalisation may not only occur when town planning efforts marginalise the community, but even when community-centring is intended and demonstrated in the planning process. We argue that community-centredness requires better understanding of its limitation so that more practical discussions about its potential can develop.