A geographic study on the commodification of rural spaces and the system of symbiotic relationships between urban and rural areas in Canada

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26300032
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: TABAYASHI Akira 筑波大学, 生命環境系(名誉教授), 名誉教授 (70092525)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 矢ケ崎 典隆 日本大学, 文理学部, 教授 (30166475) ; 兼子 純 愛媛大学, 法文学部, 准教授 (40375449) ; 菊地 俊夫 首都大学東京, 都市環境科学研究科, 教授 (50169827) ; 仁平 尊明 北海道大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (60344868)
• Research Collaborator: WALDECHUK Tom ; YAGASAKI Taiyo
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 農村地理学 / 農村空間 / 商品化 / 都市-農村共生システム / 地域性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The commodification of rural spaces signifies to utilize the regional resources found in rural spaces for various purposes. This study clarifies the role that the commodification of rural spaces has played in sustaining farming and rural areas and promoting the coexistence of urban and rural areas in British Columbia, Canada mainly based on our field surveys. There are regional differences in the way of commodifying rural resources, which reflect physical conditions, accessibility to metropolitan centers, and local agricultural activities. These differences are also due to the temporal variations of consumers' activities in the time scale of daily, weekly, yearly and lifetime, while reflecting the difference in such spatial scales as local, metropolitan, provincial, national and global. The commodification of rural spaces, which is much more advanced than that of Japan, plays an important role in promoting the symbiotic relationships between urban and rural areas in British Columbia.

Free Research Field

人文地理学