Ogata-Mura

Sowing Dissent and Reclaiming Identity in a Japanese Farming Village
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78533-044-5
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 262 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 385 g

Reihe: Asian Anthropologies

Following the Second World War, a massive land reclamation project to boost Japan’s rice production capacity led to the transformation of the shallow lagoon of Hachirogata in Akita Prefecture into a seventeen-thousand-hectare expanse of farmland. In 1964, the village of Ogata-mura was founded on the empoldered land inside the lagoon and nearly six hundred pioneers from across the country were brought to settle there. The village was to be a model of a new breed of highly mechanized, efficient rice agriculture; however, the village’s purpose was jeopardized when the demand for rice fell, and the goal of creating an egalitarian farming community was threatened as individual entrepreneurialism took root and as the settlers became divided into political factions that to this day continue to struggle for control of the village. Based on seventeen years of research, this book explores the process of Ogatamura’s development from the planning stages to the present. An intensive ethnographic study of the relationship between land reclamation, agriculture, and politics in regional Japan, it traces the internal social effects of the village’s economic transformations while addressing the implications of national policy at the municipal and regional levels.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wood, Donald C.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sachkultur, Materielle Kultur
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften: Ernährung & Gesellschaft
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Ökotrophologie (Ernährungs- und Haushaltswissenschaften)
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Village and the Issues

Putting Ogata-mura under the Lens

Problems – Community Planning, Transition Economy, and Conflict

Chapter 1. Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics in Japan

Agricultural and Regional Policy

Carrots from Heaven

Agricultural Policy and Regional Politics – Reflections

Chapter 2. Reclamation and the Old Social Order

Hachirogata Before the Reclamation

The Reclamation

Settlement

Loneliness, Depression and Tensions

The Cooperative Groups

Social Organization Beyond the Group Level

The End of the Settlement Phase

Utopia Lost?

Chapter 3. The Storm and the Aftermath

Dark Clouds on the Horizon

The Deluge

Why did the Clouds Burst?

The Beautification Campaign Accelerates

Big Plans and High Hopes

The Sociopolitical Costs of Cosmetic Surgery

Chapter 4. Rice: Alliances, Institutions, Frictions

Rice Marketing in the Village

Business and Politics in an Ogata-mura Neighborhood

Rice Farming and Business Intertwined

Chapter 5. Politics and the New Social Order

The Interplay of Opposing “Parties”

The Election of 2000

Developments Following the Election of 2000

The Election of 2004

A Fracture Forms in the Opposition Party

The Election of 2008

The Changing Political Landscape

Chapter 6. What Can We Learn from Ogata-mura?

Plans, Policies, and Politics – The Big Picture

Plans, Policies, and Politics – The Small Picture

A Model Farming Village?

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Wood, Donald C.
Donald C. Wood is an Associate Professor at Akita University, where he has worked since earning a PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Tokyo in 2004. He is currently editor of the Research in Economic Anthropology book series.