The Three-Layer Temporal Structure Theory of Disaster Social History: Toward an Integrated Understanding of Social Resilience through a Historical Approach

Atsushi Kawauchi
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Atsushi Kawauchi: Tohoku University

No dym8k_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Resilience research in disaster studies has advanced rapidly but faces a fundamental methodological problem: the absence of historical context. Criteria for judging resilience "success" vary across periods and regions, yet the risk of anachronism inherent in applying universal resilience models has been consistently overlooked. This paper presents the "Three-Layer Temporal Structure Theory of Disaster Social History," drawing on Fernand Braudel's tripartite conception of historical time. The framework analyzes disaster phenomena through the mutually interpenetrating dynamics of geographic time (millennia), structural time (decades to centuries), and event-historical time (days to years), redefining "resilience" not as recovery capacity but as a process of "historical reconstruction" shaped by historical context. Through analysis of flood response history from the seventeenth century to the present in the Igu region of Miyagi Prefecture, three theoretical findings are derived. First, transitions in the structural time layer produce "transitional vulnerability," in which existing resilience forms are dismantled before new ones emerge. Second, interactions among the three layers are bidirectional: events in lower layers can transform upper layers. Third, the recurrent invocation of "beyond all expectation" constitutes critical evidence that normative criteria for "normality" are historically constructed within the structural time layer. The framework provides an interdisciplinary analytical axis bridging the natural sciences and the humanities, while offering a critical historical perspective for contemporary disaster risk reduction policy.

Date: 2026-04-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-his and nep-hme
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:dym8k_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dym8k_v1

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