114
This chapter argues that aging and shrinking population has emerged as prominent
driver of system transition and is accompanied by the fourth possible direction of transition, the marginalizing pathway. Rural areas of Japan are the most typical cases
where such transition is taking place. The emergence of marginalization pathways is
inevitable because the total population of the country is in a long-term trend of an aging
and shrinking population. When such a declining pathway is suggested, the meaning of
rural sustainability becomes increasingly nebulous and must be redefined.
In extension of the first point, the second discussion point concerns the process
for deciding what to sustain in rural communities in the time of aging and shrinking
societies. This is a critical framing issue on what people as a society aim to sustain
in rural regions and what rural residents want to sustain in their own living environment. Multifunctionality framing notes that scenic and leisure values in natural landscape, and historical and cultural values, are to sustain in rural regions. This argument
has been the main justification for rural policies that provide a wide range of support
to rural regions, particularly through agricultural policies, both in Europe and Japan.
However, this line of discussion is rather top-down and situates rural residents as the
stewards of the regional assets, which national policies consider important.
More importantly, the voices of rural residents are not well-reflected and the
ownership of discussion is missing. Placemaking serves as a bottom-up approach to
initiate discussion among rural residents to redefine their understanding to living
environment and to identify what residents want to sustain in their own communities. Furthermore, the placemaking process guides the participants to collectively
envision a desirable state of their own communities in the future. This participatory
process generates a new mindset among the participants to engage with local issues.
This chapter introduced a Monogatari placemaking workshop in Gojome, Akita
prefecture, Japan which trained nine high school students in the town to have a retrospective view to reframe their understanding of local places and history. Such an
interactive process is an integral part of the core of placemaking and helps the participants commit themselves to the ownership of present-day local challenges.
To conclude, discussing rural sustainability in an aging and shrinking phase of
society emphasizes the importance of intergenerational ties. In such aging and
shrinking communities in rural Japan like Gojome, identifying a method to lead
their community to the relocalized low-intensity rural systems direction is critical
(see “3. Relocalized low-intensity rural systems” in Fig. 5.2) because this can ensure
the highest degree of multifunctionality. This is also desirable because the most
stable state of a rural system is achieved. This study suggests placemaking as one
method to lead a rural region towards this direction. The workshop contributed to
creating intergenerational ties about different places in Gojome through learning
four different stories namely story of the past, story of the present, story of the
future, and story of oneself (Fig. 5.8).
The workshop provided the process to learn personal and collective memories of
particular places from two local residents in different generations. By reflecting on
their stories, the participants discussed how they would like to change the same
places in the future. This practice addressed the social capital component in the
multifunctionality framework. The next step for the author is to expand intergeneraS. Kudo
This chapter argues that aging and shrinking population has emerged as prominent
driver of system transition and is accompanied by the fourth possible direction of transition, the marginalizing pathway. Rural areas of Japan are the most typical cases
where such transition is taking place. The emergence of marginalization pathways is
inevitable because the total population of the country is in a long-term trend of an aging
and shrinking population. When such a declining pathway is suggested, the meaning of
rural sustainability becomes increasingly nebulous and must be redefined.
In extension of the first point, the second discussion point concerns the process
for deciding what to sustain in rural communities in the time of aging and shrinking
societies. This is a critical framing issue on what people as a society aim to sustain
in rural regions and what rural residents want to sustain in their own living environment. Multifunctionality framing notes that scenic and leisure values in natural landscape, and historical and cultural values, are to sustain in rural regions. This argument
has been the main justification for rural policies that provide a wide range of support
to rural regions, particularly through agricultural policies, both in Europe and Japan.
However, this line of discussion is rather top-down and situates rural residents as the
stewards of the regional assets, which national policies consider important.
More importantly, the voices of rural residents are not well-reflected and the
ownership of discussion is missing. Placemaking serves as a bottom-up approach to
initiate discussion among rural residents to redefine their understanding to living
environment and to identify what residents want to sustain in their own communities. Furthermore, the placemaking process guides the participants to collectively
envision a desirable state of their own communities in the future. This participatory
process generates a new mindset among the participants to engage with local issues.
This chapter introduced a Monogatari placemaking workshop in Gojome, Akita
prefecture, Japan which trained nine high school students in the town to have a retrospective view to reframe their understanding of local places and history. Such an
interactive process is an integral part of the core of placemaking and helps the participants commit themselves to the ownership of present-day local challenges.
To conclude, discussing rural sustainability in an aging and shrinking phase of
society emphasizes the importance of intergenerational ties. In such aging and
shrinking communities in rural Japan like Gojome, identifying a method to lead
their community to the relocalized low-intensity rural systems direction is critical
(see “3. Relocalized low-intensity rural systems” in Fig. 5.2) because this can ensure
the highest degree of multifunctionality. This is also desirable because the most
stable state of a rural system is achieved. This study suggests placemaking as one
method to lead a rural region towards this direction. The workshop contributed to
creating intergenerational ties about different places in Gojome through learning
four different stories namely story of the past, story of the present, story of the
future, and story of oneself (Fig. 5.8).
The workshop provided the process to learn personal and collective memories of
particular places from two local residents in different generations. By reflecting on
their stories, the participants discussed how they would like to change the same
places in the future. This practice addressed the social capital component in the
multifunctionality framework. The next step for the author is to expand intergeneraS. Kudo