The generative power of metaphor: long‐term action research on disaster recovery in a small Japanese village

Abstract

Disaster recovery is a dynamic process of creating, maintaining, and changing the meaningful context of survivors. It is completed when they redevelop their self-reliance and resume managing their social relations with a sense of community. This study employed action research to examine how researchers and survivors collaborated to change disaster recovery through the generative power of metaphor in a small village in Japan that experienced the Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake on 23 October 2004. It outlines long-term collaborative practices as survivors undertook new activities owing to the power of the metaphor of 'school'. Once 'school' was adopted as the metaphor for where survivors learnt new skills and passed on traditional knowledge, they created new metaphors and performed new activities independently, which is critical for recovery as it demonstrates self-reliance. The paper assesses the reasons why generative metaphors worked effectively in this case and highlights some academic and practical implications for disaster recovery.