Methodological Challenges in Social Vulnerability and Resilience Research: Reflections on Studies in the Canterbury and Tohoku Disasters

Objective This article discusses the methodological challenges in social vulnerability and resilience research I encountered while conducting qualitative research on immigrants’ and refugees’ experiences in disasters. Methods These challenges and issues will be critically analyzed based on my reflections and social capital theory. Results This article highlights the institutional practices, linguistic barriers, timing, and issues of overstudying and overrepresentation. These challenges led to a critical methodological and theoretical question: Are we really reaching out to the socially vulnerable? Notably, those with higher social capital demonstrate stronger resilience. Such “success stories” are widely known, which raises a concern for disaster researchers: Is this because researchers typically have limited access channels and more easily connect with these resilient communities? Conclusion Due to their and researchers’ own lack of social capital, some groups and individuals are relatively understudied, despite the fact that researchers could learn a great deal from their disaster experience.