傳統觀點將災後重建績效差異歸諸於兩個因素。首先，國家或地方政府干預經常被視為是災後重建成敗的主要因素。其次，民間社會的非政府組織、義工的救援，有時比官僚機構更有效率且更合乎災民需要。然而，上述因素似乎忽略災民的主體性或地方社會在重建過程中的作用。近年來災難研究轉而強調災區地方社會的韌性也會影響重建績效。本文以2008年中國大陸汶川地震災後重建為例，以國家介入程度與社區參與程度的強弱建立四種災後重建的類型—「強外力介入、強社區網絡」、「弱外力介入、強社區網絡」、「強外力介入、弱社區網絡」與「弱外力介入、弱社區網絡」，我們發現這四種類型由高至低，依序決定了社區重建的表現。國家單方面強行介入的重建方式，短期顯得很有效率，卻往往破壞地方社會網絡與公民社會發展，對於長期的經濟與生活重建反而不利。

The conventional wisdom of disaster studies focused on the state and civil society as the outside helper in the reconstruction stage. The two aspects, however, largely neglected the subjective responses of victims and local communities. In the name of resilience, recent studies have turned to the effects of local community in disaster relief. According to our fieldwork after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, we develop four ideal-type of communities—(1) strong state vs. strong community, (2) weak state vs. strong community, (3) strong state vs. weak community, and (4) weak state vs. weak community—and find that the performances of reconstruction, from the best to the worst, follow the same sequence. It displays the important role of local community in building resilience. In contrast, the strong state top-down reconstruction project may damage the performances by destroy social networks in local communities.