Ruins for the future

American Ethnologist, vol. 48, pp. 7–21

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2011 a tsunami over 20 meters high struck Japan's northeastern coastline. Along with causing close to 20,000 deaths, it destroyed many buildings, leaving behind a landscape of ruins. In the years since the disaster, various groups in Japan have interpreted these ruins as a way to work through “what went wrong.” Some pointed to local officials’ failure to properly prepare for the disaster, as well as the form of economic development that they had promoted. Others, however, particularly state officials, argued that the ruins of failed development reveal something that can be used to stimulate economic recovery and legitimize further development. Ironically, these groups mobilized the debris of “progress” to advance progress itself, complicating theories of recent ruins as “counter‐sites.” This shows that actors can construct and leverage the truth content of ruins in support of the very ideologies and processes that caused their ruination in the first place. [3.11, disaster, governance, materiality, modernity, ruination, Japan]

Authors 1

1. Andrew Littlejohn corresponding Aachen Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology Leiden University Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden The Netherlands

   Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands