Abstract
On January 17, 1995, the Hyogo-Nanbu Earthquake struck the Hanshin metropolitan area. Many people were killed or injured by the collapse of houses and fire due to fatal defects in disaster prevention and relief measures. A lot of people had to stay in emergency shelters and later temporary housing, and rebuilt their daily lives with the help of family, neighbors and community organizations. This recovery process was a vivid representation of an urban dynamism that is not immediately apparent in everyday life.
We explain the various social phenomena in the wake of the earthquake from the viewpoint of Beck's “risk society.” Kobe city's urban planning approach was unduly optimistic regarding the likelihood of earthquake damage in the Kansai area. Also, urban planning policies had produced and was a reflection of class differentiation as revealed by the fact that housing damage and casualties resulting from the earthquake were most severe in the inner city area of Kobe.
We also draw attention to the issues of urban planning and the development of civil activities especially among volunteer groups who played an indispensable role at that time, compensating for the lack of municipal services. This fact can be analyzed using the notion of “bürgerliche Gesellschaft, ” or self-governing “city” akin to those that existed in ancient and medieval history. In the process of modernization “bürgerliche Gesellshcaft” became the “bourgeois society, ” and separated into “nation, ” “capitalist economy” and “civil society.” “Civil society” can be understood as the active agent of social “reflexivity.” Volunteer activities following the Hanshin Earthquake hence reveal a new dimension in “civil society.”
