A Review of Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction for the Elderly from the Individual Social Capital Perspective

The burgeoning interest in the role of social capital in disaster recovery started 20 years ago. Especially， after the Great East Japan Earthquake， social capital has been used to explain disaster resource distribution including physical supplies and volunteers from all over Japan. In Japanese， it is called the power of“Kizuna”which was chosen as the most representative word in 2011. Actually， in the disaster research field， it has been proven that the speed of recovery is greater in stricken areas with higher community-based social capital. However， this boom lacks an individual social capital perspective. Notably， previous research shows that older adults represent a highly vulnerable population during disasters， but how they use their social capital to achieve recovery is seldom discussed. In this study， I targeted the elderly as a research subject and tried to reorganize the correlation between individual social capital and disaster support. First， this article reviews previous research about social capital theory and how this theory has been used in disaster research. After reviewing the theory， the research frame of social capital is defined as bounding social capital， bridging social capital and linking social capital. Secondly， the study uses this research frame to present features of the elderly from individual social capital perspective of the elderly in post-disaster， and found out that the elderly are highly independent in bounding social capital and linking social capital. Finally， this article points out that future research will use a comprehensive view on how to support the elderly in post-disaster.査読研究論文Refereed Paper