Transnational collaboration in the Pacific Rim ¹: A conversation with Robert Olshansky, Ikuo Kobayashi, & Liang-Chun Chen

The actors we talk to include Ikou Kobayashi, the director of Co-Plan (a non-profit organization) and Professor at the Graduate School of Disaster Resilience and Governance, the University of Hyogo, who has been actively engaging in community planning and community recovery since the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake. Another is Robert Olshansky, emeritus Professor at Urban and Regional Planning at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, who has researched recovery planning and management after numerous major disasters in countries including the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, and Indonesia. Liang-Chun Chen, who used to serve as the director of National Science and Technology Center of Disaster Reduction in Taiwan and teach at National Taiwan University, joined the conversation with the former two scholars to reflect on their long-term friendship and collaboration over recovery planning. The three senior scholars generously shared with the younger generation how their knowledge about the subject have been accumulated on-site and with communities.