Creative Improvisation in Disaster Responses : Practice in areas aff ected by the Kumamoto earthquakes

In the face of disasters, organizations and groups collaborate continuously and fluidly, coordinating with one another in order to overcome extraordinary challenges. When researchers explored this phenomenon in-depth, they employed the concept of “improvisation.” However, there is a dearth of research in the area of “creative improvisation” relating to civic agencies that do not have special plans or approaches to disaster response. This study, therefor, aims at identifying some of the most eff ective improvisational approaches taken by civic agencies in the fi eld of communication where information, consciousness, and ideas converge. This paper classifi es cases of creative improvisation observed during the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes into two types and considers the respective conditions of improvisation. These are: 1) “Place-making”: by raising several cases representing “place to convergence” scattered throughout the region, the improvisational condition that can be summarized as, "Awareness of gathering to support the aff ected key places" is highlighted. 2) “Forming a commonality”: through participant observation at the "informal talk" held by local civil agencies, the interaction between agencies in the sense-making process is highlighted, thus clarifying the improvisational approaches of, "the process of realizing the role while being encouraged to participate initially," and "ingenuity to induce new movement by co-editing opposite opinions".