‘Rural–Urban Alliance’ as a new model for post-disaster social work intervention in community reconstruction: The case in Sichuan,China

Field site

H is a township in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province. Before the earthquake, H township was an important centre of heavy industry in the region, with a population of more than 12,000, of whom 6641 were native. During the 5.12 earthquake, H was the ‘centre of the epicentre’. More than 9000 persons lost their lives and 1000 were wounded. After the earthquake, there were only 2300 survivors. Almost every family lost at least one relative during the disaster. Immediately after the earthquake, the residents were moved to a temporary housing area near the original township to wait passively for government aid.

Forty-two days after the earthquake, we ¹ were invited by the Guangdong provincial government to join the emergency relief effort. Guangdong province was designated the supporting partner of Wenchuan county under the Chinese government’s plan for the reconstruction. While we did not receive government funding, we did secure HK$870,529 from the General Research Fund of the University Grants Council of Hong Kong and around HK$1,000,000 from the Zeshan Foundation. Our research team included three full-time social workers who were recent graduates from colleges in Sichuan, four social work educators from the Sun Yat-sen University and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, respectively, and three social work students in volunteer positions. None of the research team members had experience in disaster intervention before the earthquake, but the social work educators had been actively involved in a number of extended community development projects and had wide experience in applying the PAR method in rural China.

When we came to H township, we agreed that our aim was not to conduct conventional research, but to assist the local people, build the capacity of the local community and develop a disaster-intervention model that was appropriate to the Chinese cultural context and would be a useful example for social work education and for community long-term development.

Participatory action research

Our chosen method was PAR, which has been used by community workers to strengthen and support the capacity of communities to grow and change (McTaggart, 1996; Zuber-Skerritt, 1996). The primary goal of PAR is to create a more just society through transformative social change (Park, 1993; Reason and Hilary, 2008; Small, 1995; Vickers, 2005). Research is no longer seen as solely a means of creating knowledge; it is also a process of education, a development of consciousness and a call to action (Park, 1993, 1999; Reason and Hilary, 2008; Small, 1995). The fundamental principles of PAR are that first, participants (often peasant/poor/marginal people) are regarded as ‘knowers’ and their knowledges and experiences are valorized. Second, researchers temper their own ‘expert’ status, and while not dismissing their own specialist skills, do not presume to have a superior perspective. Third, the agency of participants is recognized and encouraged (participants are encouraged to recognize their own agency) and researchers and participants enter into a reciprocal relationship in the research process (Kesby, 2000: 424).

The central feature of PAR, then, is that it relies on the people themselves to engage in the research process to the greatest extent possible (Park, 1999: 143–44). Local people are full partners in the research process and are usually referred to as co-researchers (Gaventa, 1988; Park, 1999; Schruijer, 2006; Small, 1995; Streck, 2007).

Our action research took place in stages. We began by establishing trust, gaining understanding of people’s living experiences after the earthquake and assessing their needs and local assets. We then encouraged local women to form a handicraft group, providing them with psychological support and launching short-term financial assistance programmes. One year later, when the disaster relief work had reached the stage of community reconstruction, we began a second round of action research in H township. During this period, we developed a model of rural–urban alliance to support long-term sustainable economic development for the disaster-affected community.

Guided by the action research method, our research team used different skills at different stages to engage in our activities and record our process. To learn about the needs and assets of the community, we employed participant observation, in-depth interviews and asset-mapping methods. Focus groups were used mainly to facilitate group discussions, explore ideas and find strategies for action. When implementing community activities, the participants’ observations and informal feedback were recorded as field notes. Sometimes, public meetings were held to encourage participants to articulate and share their sentiments. In-depth interviews were also conducted with the local officials, community leaders and selected representatives of various age groups (children, young people, adults and senior citizens). All the members of the research team were required to keep notes and record their reflections in journals. Women from the community were also recruited and trained to help with data collection. One of the characteristics of action research is that data collection and analysis cannot be separated. We analysed data on an ongoing basis and had discussions with the women’s group at each stage to plan our actions. Our data, presented in the following section, are based primarily on our field notes and journals.

Asset and capacity building in the emergency relief stage

The community structure of H township was completely destroyed in the 5.12 earthquake. Adopting the strength perspective, we proceeded on the basis that the local people still had capacity and assets to put into practice during the disaster response. In our role as action researchers, our first task was to listen to the voices of community residents and learn about their lives. We needed to establish a trusting relationship with local people before attempting any intervention. In the first 2 weeks, we visited the families, made friends with community members and listened patiently to their stories. These activities help social workers not only to build relationships with the community, but also to identify assets and needs. On a visit to Z village, where a group of women had lost children and close family members, we discovered that most of the women of the Qiang and Zang ethnic minorities were skilled in traditional embroidery. Before the earthquake, they had spent much of their time embroidering. Miss D, who lost two daughters in the earthquake, told us that she wanted to embroider her daughters’ drawings as a keepsake because cloth would last longer than paper. The idea of forming a women’s embroidery group suddenly presented itself.

We asked the local women whether they were willing to employ their skills to establish an embroidery group. The project would not only provide them with some income but also help to relieve their sadness. They would come together to do embroidery and support each other during this critical period. Working on the embroidery would help to shift their attention from the past to the present. The women agreed; they wanted to recover by themselves rather than depending on outside help. They also hoped the embroidery could be a source of income (Figre 1).

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Figure 1.

Women doing embroidery.

Very quickly, 10 women, ranging in age from 19 to 45, formed the first ‘H Mother’ embroidery chapter. By the end of December 2008, five chapters had been established and about 100 women had joined. Meanwhile, we searched for funding and markets for the groups and finally received support from the Young Women’s Christian Association in Chengdu, which donated 60,000 RMB to purchase several hundred pieces of the embroidery. On 12 May 2009, the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, we organized a charity auction in Guangzhou and about 240,000 RMB was raised. We established the ‘H Mother development fund’: all money raised was used for women’s development.

Our intervention in the creation of the embroidery group reflects our belief that co-operation is the key to capacity-building and empowerment. At the beginning, we played the roles of organizers and facilitators, mobilizing the women to participate. The next step was to foster the women’s capacities. We helped the women to clarify common goals and to help each other improve their embroidery skills, and we provided them with a start-up loan to purchase materials and tools. These achievements were all based on the co-operation between social workers and the embroidery group. All decisions, big and small, were made collectively, and everyone was responsible. After a few months, the embroidery group had acquired a team spirit. Group leaders emerged, and there was a clear division of labour. The women found their role within the group according to their particular talents and abilities (e.g. products design, material purchasing, marketing, quality control and financial records).

Transformation from a short-term intervention to long-term development project

After the earthquake, the official large-scale reconstruction project focused on infrastructure. A school, a hospital, a government building, a water supply facility and a cultural centre were established in every earthquake-stricken rural township. New stylish housing estates were built for villagers to purchase. However, as Ting and Chen (2012) point out, this state-led growth-oriented model of reconstruction did not take the needs and concerns of local people into consideration. Government progress reports highlighted how many roads, highways, bridges, power stations, hospitals, schools and houses were built in a short period of time. The reconstruction project became a showcase of the Chinese government’s efficiency and success. The villagers, however, were unappreciative of, and even resistant to, the government intervention. Throughout the process, the villagers’ core concern – their livelihood – had not been seriously considered or addressed. Most of the new housing copied the design of urban residential estates. The houses had two or three bedrooms on the upper floor, a sitting or dining room and kitchen on the lower floor, and washrooms on both floors. However, they were built in such close proximity that the villagers had no space to raise livestock, grow vegetables or store farming tools. The location of the houses meant that the villagers faced long journeys to their fields: some had to spend 2 hours walking from their new home to their farming land.

When we returned to H township to conduct the second stage of our action research, the team determined that the most important concern for local people was their long-term livelihood. One year after the earthquake, charitable donations were sharply reduced and the government’s financial assistance was also coming to an end. The residents needed to find means to support themselves in the long run. The H Mother development fund could provide women with seed funding for new projects. We hoped to involve more community members at this stage and build their capacities for long-term livelihood development. In the summer of 2009, Lena Dominelli visited H township, and we had the opportunity to discuss long-term disaster intervention with her. Although her book Green Social Work was not published until 2012, she had already developed her views on the integration of green social work and disaster intervention. We agreed with her view that disaster social work intervention should be culturally-relevant and locality-specific; it must consider the links between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability (Dominelli, 2012).

Since 2009, we have transformed our projects from short-term disaster interventions to long-term sustainable community-development programmes. We have adopted the ‘rural–urban alliance’ as an alternative development model and endeavoured to forge connections between urban communities and disaster-affected villages. A rural–urban alliance should be mutually beneficial. Rural residents require economic support from urban communities; urban residents require the high-quality, organic food supplied by villagers. Fair trade and ecotourism profit both parties: they provide villagers with income and support for organic farming and cultural preservation, and, at the same time, they demonstrate to urban residents the benefits of green consumerism. Social workers play a critical role in forging rural–urban alliances by creating a bridge linking the two parties. In cities, social workers use the public education system to help residents understand the issues in disaster-affected communities, and to appreciate the value of food security and organic farming. In villages, they encourage producers to undertake organic farming to generate more income and protect the environment. The main objective of the model is to prompt the urban community to become a partner in the project of long-term rural development (Figure 2).

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Figure 2.

Rural–urban alliance model.

Embroidery production

We extended the embroidery project after our return. In interviews with old women in the villages, we discovered that there are rich cultural meanings associated with the common embroidery subjects. We collected the traditional stories about the scenes depicted in the embroidery and created a brochure. This not only helped to preserve the traditional embroidery culture, but also gave urban residents a better understanding of these products’ cultural value.

From June 2009, we helped the women in the embroidery group to improve their embroidery skills, work collectively and manage their organization. We held an embroidery workshop – a positive and co-operative environment for group members to learn from each other. We also took the members on visits to other collectives involved in similar projects to see how they worked and were organized. Through these visits, the group members acquired a broader awareness of product design and organizational management. A group of about 20 women received a loan of 50,000 RMB from the H Mother fund to build an embroidery pavilion where women could embroider together, hold meetings and participate in other collective activities. The pavilion also acts as a showcase for their work and provides outsiders with an introduction to Qiang and Zang styles. Through these activities, the group members’ communication, co-operation, knowledge, innovation and self-confidence were enhanced (Figure 3).

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Figure 3.

Women having a group meeting at a pavilion.

Ecological tourism

H township is located in a beautiful area, and its residents follow a carefully preserved traditional lifestyle. It offers a welcome respite to urbanites who wish to escape the city, relax and enjoy nature. Given the township’s rich social, ecological and cultural resources, we encouraged the original embroidery group members to consider running a guest house for visitors interested in ecotourism. Together with the group members, we visited various scenic areas and eventually drew up an ‘ecotourism assets map’, showing H township’s natural and cultural resources and community networks (Figure 4).

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Figure 4.

The map of eco-tourism.

The women started the ecotourism project in January 2010. Taking 20,000 RMB from the H Mother fund, they established an ‘H Mother’ guest house, where visitors could stay and experience the area’s ecological resources with local guides. We introduced the group to the concept of the homestay (minus in Taiwan and minshuku in Japan), so they would appreciate the difference between mass tourism and ecotourism. We provided the women with information on the operation of a family guest house and its basic requirements, and helped them to access outside resources (such as plans for building ecological toilets). Finally, we promoted the guest houses on the radio.

Some group members, however, were reluctant to participate: they relied on us to arrange the reception activities and positioned themselves as serving staff for the visitors. They had not yet arrived at the understanding that they owned the project. After lengthy group discussions and private conversations, we realized that their passivity was based on earlier events: we had played a prominent role in the previous embroidery project, and the group members followed our lead. They were simply repeating this behaviour in the context of the ecotourism project.

According to the principles of PAR, a key step in encouraging active participation is to involve the participants in the decision-making process related to project development (Pretty, 1995). We, therefore, invited the women to design ecotourism reception activities. The women worked together on the arrangement of accommodations, organization of activities and the design of tour routes. After making tentative plans, they focused on the practical means of realizing their vision. Feedback from visitors helped them to refine their original design. Our hope was that the group members would acquire a sense of ownership towards the project, build up a culture of democratic decision-making and develop their own capacities.

In addition to encouraging the women’s positive involvement, we fostered their confidence and cultural identity. Once they had paying guests, the women discussed how to make their guest house more comfortable. With our assistance, the women decorated the rooms to reflect their Tibetan legacy. In the past, they believed that they should copy the predominant Han style – ‘modern’ and ‘civilized’. As they interacted with visitors, they realized the attractions of their traditional culture. We worked together to incorporate traditional cultural elements into their daily routines, thus providing visitors with a deeper understanding of their heritage. For example, the women embroidered the curtains and bed sheets in the guest rooms, and they used traditional methods of bamboo weaving to make wastebaskets.

To sustain the development of the project, we devoted a great deal of energy to creating a market. The first step was to identify potential customers and to transform their conception of tourism. Mass tourism focuses on sightseeing and consumption. In contrast, we were promoting ecotourism, which focuses on traditional cultural heritage, environmentalism, fair trade and rural–urban co-operation. We offered information sessions in urban communities in Chengdu city, where we introduced our project site and explained the principles of ecotourism and rural–urban co-operation. We broadcast a documentary about H township, which showcased its crafts and produce, and explored other channels for marketing on the Internet and public radio (Figure 5).

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Figure 5.

A tour coming to visit H township.

When tourists came to H township, their experience was unlike a usual vacation. They had close interactions with the host families, and were able to enjoy the natural environment, participate in traditional cultural activities and visit farms. They were encouraged to join their hosts working in the field, cooking meals and making handicrafts. In the process, the farmers had the opportunity to impart their traditional culture and wisdom. Activities were designed to encourage city dwellers to question the consequences of mainstream economic development and consumerism. During their stay, the visitors learned to appreciate the beauties of nature and the simple life, and some grew disillusioned with mass tourism. They gained a greater awareness of social, cultural and environmental issues.

Organic farming and the fair trade project

We also encouraged the rural and urban participants to work together on an organic farming and fair trade project. When tourists came to H township, they found that the produce was grown according to traditional methods, without any fertilizer and pesticide. Given that the integrity of food is a subject of critical concern in urban China, the purity of the produce in H township was highly appreciated. We realized that fair trade would be a good basis for a mutually beneficial relationship between farmers and urban consumers. Bypassing the middleman, the farmers could sell their organic products directly to consumers, who would acquire unadulterated food for a reasonable price.

The first step in the development of the organic farming project was to assess the agricultural resources. We asked the local farmers to teach us about the breeding and planting of species in H township and about local modes of production. We discovered that the farmers were a fund of indigenous knowledge and local wisdom. Detailed field notes were taken and converted into an ‘agricultural assets map’ of the village, which helped us to discover more possibilities for organic farming (Figure 6).

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Figure 6.

Agricultural assets map.

We encouraged the villagers to protect their traditional ecological farming methods and engage in an organic farming project. About 10 farmers who were interested in eco-farming were organized into groups that would take a traditional approach to breeding livestock and growing produce. The ecological vegetable group members grew heritage varieties of tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers and soy beans. The poultry group decided that no chemical fodder would be used. We worked together with the farmers to draw up the production plans, and provided them with market information and customer feedback.

We have promoted H township’s organic food since 2009. In order to encourage city dwellers’ support, we needed to raise awareness of green agricultural methods. We regularly organized rural–urban exchange activities, such as food-tasting festivals and farmers’ markets. Through these activities, the urban consumers learned about ecological production and rural life, and the farmers gained a better understanding of their customers’ concerns about diet and the use of chemicals. Through such interactions, they forged a more trusting relationship. City dwellers began to visit H township in order to buy produce directly from the farmers; some asked to be provided with a delivery service for their orders.

After discussions with the farmers and consumers, we came up with a plan to open a fair trade shop, which would serve as a shopping, marketing and educational centre. In September 2010, we opened a shop in Chengdu, and invited the women from H township to introduce their embroidery and agricultural products, tell their life stories and explain their traditional culture. The fair trade shop gave us a platform to showcase our ideas, connect producers with consumers and generally promote the mutually beneficial relationship of the farmers and the consumers.