Characteristics of local environmental movements over resource governance in Japan

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24653115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (2013-2015); Nagoya University (2012)
• Principal Investigator: OH TOMOHIRO 総合地球環境学研究所, 研究部, プロジェクト研究員 (60614790)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 資源 / 統治 / 住民運動 / 環境保全 / レトリック / 風土

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Typical studies on natural resources from a social science perspective tend to choose one type of resource-forests or seas. This approach, however, may oversimplify the intricate social relations behind the resource problem and mislead the premise that which resource should be focused. And from a historical viewpoint, it is often the case that strong protests from the sufferers of serious pollution or resource degradation played a critical role in implementing effective regulations. Therefore, this study pays attention to failures of fragmented approach and an emerging trend of environmental movements based on an awareness of the connections between local resources. Focusing on the spread of fishermen's plantations in the 1990s and the fishery industry in Yakushima, the island designated a World Heritage site by its rare forest, revealed the characteristics of natural resource governance and counter strategies of local people.

Free Research Field

資源論