Photovoice of Women Who Have Experienced the 2011 Great East Japan Disasters: Collective, Participatory Community Assessments and Action

Background and Purpose:  The aims of this multi-site PhotoVoice project are two-fold:  a) to document and assess women’s experiences at the individual, family, community, and society levels, and b) to collaboratively examine the issues affecting their communities following the Great East Japan Disasters of March 2011.  This participatory action research project—an ongoing collaboration between local women’s organizations and university-based researchers—seeks to strengthen gender-informed disaster policies and response by engaging the very women affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident in the analyses, formulation of recommendations, and advocacy efforts. 

Methods:  Since June 2011, over 50 women have participated in the project, which spans across eight locations:  6 are located in the most disaster-affected areas of northern Japan, and 2 are in Tokyo Metropolitan District where a large number of evacuees from the disaster-affected areas reside.  Participants range from their 20s to their 70s in age and come from diverse socio-demographic backgrounds.  They take photographs of their lives and communities and bring them to a small group meeting on an ongoing basis to discuss their current/recent conditions.  At the meeting, they reflect on, compare, and contrast their own and other members’ experiences and explore the meanings of their experiences in the socio-cultural, political and historical context.  Discussions at the group meetings have been video-taped and transcribed.  Informed by grounded theories, transcribed discussions and photographs taken and shown by the participants have been analyzed using a process of open coding followed by focused and selective coding.

Results:  Analyses of photographs and group discussions elucidate various ways in which the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident have affected participants, their families, neighborhoods, community organizations, and society at large; how they make sense of, and respond to, natural and technological disasters; and how individual experiences are influenced by their positionalities, such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status.  Repeated discussions of their own and other members’ experiences with the disasters have often led to the identification of underlying socio-cultural and political factors that contribute to differences in resources allocated to and vulnerability faced by individuals and communities.  Facilitated group discussions also have served as a collective space for grieving the loss and rebuilding their lives.  Gradually, participants have formulated recommendations for policies and community actions, and increasingly become interested in speaking out and begun taking action individually and collectively. 

Conclusions and Implications:  Findings of the project suggest that participatory action research efforts, such as PhotoVoice project, could serve as a participatory method for collective community assessments and development following major disasters.  This type of research effort promotes participants’ reflections and social action, a process similar to Freireian conscientization/conscientização.