After the cascading disaster—earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident—in Fukushima on 11 March 2011, the Fukushima region is facing a significant reconstruction challenge. Contamination, economic downturn, depopulation, labor shortage, a damaged reputation, and public distrust must be overcome in order to ensure the future economic recovery of Fukushima. Based on field surveys of the affected areas and unstructured interviews with key informants such as local residents, government officials, and local businesses, this study analyses economic recovery in Fukushima. By exploring four key “pillar” areas of Fukushima’s economic recovery—renewable energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism—this paper gives an overview of how to rebuild industry in the shadow of nuclear pollution. The results show how the economic recovery in Fukushima has required adaptation and innovation by the local people, and the economic downturn has been reversed and subsequently improved. Across the pillar industries, innovative reconstruction projects have been pioneered and led by local residents and businesses. Fukushima’s industrial recovery has been facilitated by the efforts to make the livelihoods of local residents sustainable. It is argued that creative and sustainable economic recovery makes full use of people’s and businesses’ existing resources to transform the disadvantages caused by disasters into opportunities.

It is often difficult to realize effective governance and management within the inherent complexity and uncertainty of disasters. The application of crowdsourcing, through encouraging voluntary support from the general public, advances efficient disaster governance. Twelve international case studies of crowdsourcing and natural disaster governance were collected for in-depth analysis. Influenced by Complex Adaptive System theory, we explored the self-organizing operation mechanisms and self-organization processes of crowdsourcing within disaster governance. The self-organizing operation mechanisms of crowdsourcing are influenced by the multi-directional interaction between the crowdsourcing platform, the initiator (who commences the crowdsourcing process) and the contractor (who undertakes disaster reduction tasks). The benefits of crowdsourcing for governance structure and self-organization processes in natural disaster governance are reflected in three perspectives: strengthening communication and coordination, optimizing emergency decision-making, and improving the ability to learn and adapt. This paper discusses how crowdsourcing can promote disaster resilience from the perspective of the complex adaptive system to enrich the theoretical research on crowdsourcing and disaster resilience.

Purpose: With the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world, the consideration of effective communication strategies from Wuhan can provide valuable insight to other countries in how to manage their risk response. This study analyzes the building of a risk communication system in Wuhan, China, to aid cross-country comparison from a policy and academic perspective. Methods: We use complex adaptive systems theory (CAS) to theorize the communication strategy adopted by the government – led by the Hubei Province COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters. Using ethnographic fieldwork and discourse analysis, we observed and analyzed the online and offline communication process to formulate an overview of the communications platforms used in Wuhan. Results: Wuhan’s adaptive crisis communication system was backed by digital and offline infrastructure, human resources support, policy development, as well as access to scientific and technological expertize. The Wuhan municipal government adapted its communication strategy in response to public feedback, and created mechanisms to ensure that two-way communication was used to drive policy and integrate feedback from the government, enterprises, social organizations and the public. Wuhan’s risk and crisis communication strategy aimed to meet emergency commitments, recover trust, regulate the public’s emotions and build consensus, operating within a complex adaptive system (CAS). Conclusion: By using complex adaptive system (CAS) theory, we argue that Wuhan quickly built an adaptive communication system consisting of five elements: 1) non-linear information output, 2) online and offline continuous support systems, 3) a public emotional support system, 4) multi-subject information interaction platforms and 5) a context-based approach.