Post-displacement placemaking to reconnect social capital after the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami in Arahama, Japan

Abstract

The growing number of natural hazards cause an increase in displacement and disconnections of affected population from their pre-disaster environments. People affected by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (3.11) faced similar issues. By efforts of Japanese national and local governments, community organizations and individuals, land use restrictions were implemented, and houses and communities were rebuilt. Consequently, original affected lands were emptied, and former residents’ social capital became more disconnected. In response, placemakers took diverse initiatives to recover hazardous areas, reconnect displaced communities, and promote community resilience. This study examined post-3.11 placemaking efforts from the Arahama area of Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture through different perspectives of land-use transformation, placelessness, place attachment, and reconnecting social capital. Our findings show that post-disaster long-term placemaking projects that have people-based approaches successfully created “third places” with a strong sense of attachment. In these cases, placemakers collectively preserved valuable pre-disaster meanings of places while creating new meaning of places for users and themselves, actively enhanced dimensions of social capital, and reconnected displaced social capital. This research also found that placemaking processes offered dynamic functions, activities, and interventions, resulting in enhanced sense of place.