Japanese Local Community as Socio-Structural Resource for Ecological Lifestyle

• Authors: Keliyan Maya
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The Fukushima nuclear disaster re-placed in more severe way on the agenda of Japanese society the question of the re-evaluation of an ecological consumption and lifestyle. This article studies the specific features and the development of the environmentally minded lifestyle in Japanese local communities; the enterprising social actors who help disseminate it and spread its values; and the particular way of implementation of well‑established global practices in local Japanese conditions. The purpose of the text is, in proceeding from the concept of ecological lifestyle, to determine the local community as vital socio-structural resource for promotion of ecological consumption in Japan.

Keywords

EN

local community; lifestyle; teikei consumer; co-operatives urban farming

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 29
• Pages: 85-108

Dates

published

2016-12-01

Contributors

author

Keliyan Maya

• Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

References

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• Like in Northern part of Kyoto around Kitayama street or on the North-East around Shirakawa street.
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• I visited these farms again during 2015 and 2016, just to observe their activities without conducting special research.
• The interviewed urban farmers shared their disappointment with the fact that some of the townsfolk ignore the farm labor, looking down on farming as the work of the three Ks – in Japanese kiken – 危険 (dangerous), kitanai – きたない (dirty) and kitsui – きつい (hard).
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• Every suburban farm in Kamigamo keep in deep secret its special receipt for preparing suguki establishing something like a “brand product”.
• Farmer’s wife from above mentioned urban family farm in Kamigamo sometimes also was selling vegetables in this way, on the streets of North and Western part of Kyoto where this form of trade is permitted by Kyoto municipality.