The Research on the Conditions for Establishing Ecologically Sound Local Communities in Remote Rural Areas: A Tentative of the Environmental Sociology for Independent Local Communities

本研究旨在探讨以有机农业和林业为基础，建立可持续和独立的生态健全的地方社区的条件。在本次研究中，我选取了5个农村地区，对每个地区进行了实地调查，主要采用了密集访谈法，并收集了相关资料。选定的五个领域是岛根县的大出云地区、爱媛市的前滨町、宫崎市的绫町、鹿儿岛的屋久岛和杨县的永井市。在这些偏远的农村地区，人们正试图以有机农业为主要活动，结合当地产业，利用当地资源和生态旅游来重建和振兴当地社区。在这篇报告中，我主要尝试分析两个领域。一个是岛根县的大泉地区，在Kisuki-nyugyo（由奶牛场成立的公司）的领导下，有机农业运动得到了扩大。另一个是爱媛的Akehama-cho，在那里，一群柑橘种植者“Muchachaen”主动推广有机农业。通过这些运动（以有机农业为基础），两个社区都建立了本地内生企业，并确保了管理当地社区自治的人员。每一场运动都引入了“合作性地方社区”的模式，这种模式具有一种新的社会关系，即所谓的“亲密领域”，以及与城市消费者的网络。每一次运动的发展过程，都为当前社会经济体制的改革方向和未来城市与偏远农村的合作方式提出了建议，以建立“生态良好的地方社区”。

This research aims at examining the conditions for establishing ecologically sound local communities as being sustainable and independent based on the organic agriculture and forestry. For this research, I selected five rural areas, and then made a field survey in each area mainly using an intensive interview method and collected the related materials. The five chosen fields are Okuizumo region in shimane, Akehama-cho in Ehime, Aya-cho in Miyazaki, Yakushima Island in Kagoshima and Nagai-shi in Yang. In these remote rural areas people are trying to reconstruct and vitalize their local communities by organic agriculture as main activity in combination with local industries utilizing local resources and eco-tourism.In this report, I attempted an analysis mainly of two fields. One is Okuizumo region in Shimane, where the organic agriculture movement has expanded under the leadership of Kisuki-nyugyo (the company established by dairy farms).The other is Akehama-cho in Ehime, where a group of citrus fruits growers, "Muchachaen", has taken the initiative in promoting the organic agriculture. Through these movements (based on organic agriculture), both communities established local endogenous businesses and secured people who manage self-government of local communities. Each movement effected also to introduce models of " cooperative local community" with a qualitatively new social relationship so-called "intimate sphere", and networks with urban consumers. The developing processes of each movement suggested the direction of the reform of present social economic systems and the way of the cooperation between urban cities and remote rural areas in the future establishing "ecologically sound local community".