12th Conference of the Pacific Rim Community Design Network: "Looking Backand Looking Forward: Community and Justice in Crisis": Conference and sitevisits (2023/9/16-18).
Themes: Community recovery, community planning, disaster reconstruction, recovery, The Great
East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, nuclear disaster, Fukushima, International
Symposium,
Place: IRIDeS, Sendai City, Futaba Town, Namie Town, Minami-Soma Town, Tomioka Town
URL: http://prcdnet.org/working-conferences-papers/2023-tohoku/From Sept. 16-18th, the 12th Conference of the Pacific Rim Community Design Network: "LookingBack and Looking Forward: Community and Justice in Crisis" was held in Tohoku, including asymposium at IRIDeS, and field visits to disaster-affected communities in Fukushima. With morethan 115 participants, this event was co-organized by the International Research Institute ofDisaster Science (IRIDeS) of Tohoku University, co-chaired by Assoc. Prof. Maly Elizabeth(International Research Collaboration Office), and the Foundation for Ecological Democracy, incollaboration with the The Pacific Rim Community Design Network.
The Pacific Rim Community Design Network was first launched at the University of California,
Berkeley in 1998, and for the last 25 years has been bringing together leading community design
scholars and practitioners from Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. The network has provided
a vehicle for collaboration and mutual support, as well as a forum for a comparative understandingof community design in the fast-changing political and social context of the Pacific Rim, withnetwork members now in countries including Australia, Canada, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Japan,New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States.
A celebration of the 25th anniversary of the network, this event was the first time to meet in personpost-pandemic, and as the first meeting in Japan since 2010, it was also the first time for thenetwork to gather in the disaster-affected area after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunamiof March 11, 2011. Taking the theme of justice and community design, the focus of the event wason visiting and understanding the current situation of disaster-affected communities in Fukushima.
On Sept 16th, participants visited Futaba Town together, and from the evening and on Sept 17th,
split into 4 smaller groups, who stayed in and visited different communities in Odaka in MinamiSoma, Tomioka, Futaba, and Namie, exploring different themes including youth, storytelling, andcommunity recovery. Coordination for the field visits was carried out with the collaboration of many
network members, and from Tohoku University: Assistant Professor Julia Gerster (Disaster Cultureand Archive Studies) and Prof. Aya Kubota (Graduate School of Engineering, Architecture andUrban Design Course, Tohoku University)
On the 18th, participants came back together for the Big Table gathering at IRIDeS, in Sendai. In
the morning, each group shared what they had seen and learned, followed by a special
presentation from Prof. Kota Kawasaki of Fukushima University, a comment from Professor
Emeritus Randy Hester (Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University ofCalifornia Berkeley), and a discussion with all participants. More than 40 participants presented
their research in poster presentations, including IRIDeS faculty: Assoc. Prof. Maly Elizabeth,
Researcher (Specially Appointed) Miwako Kitamura (International Research Collaboration Office),and Visiting Researcher Naomi Chiba (Disaster Humanities and Social Science Division).
In the afternoon, a symposium on the 25th anniversary of the network included a special keynote
presentation from Prof. Randy Hester, looking back on the history of the network, and a panel
discussion looking forward.
Text and Photos by: Maly Elizabeth (International Research Collaboration Office)(continues to the next page)Large group photo of all participants on Sept.
16 in Futaba Town

Small group participants who visited
Tsushima area of Namie Town, on Sept. 17

Big Table Gathering on the morning of Sept 18,
sharing their field visit experiences

Panel discussion

Special Keynote
Presentationfrom Prof.
Randy Hester inthe Sept 18
Symposium

Group photo of participants