Coming Soon to a City Near You! Learning to Live 'Beyond Growth' in Japan's Shrinking Regions

Matanle, Peter; Sato, Yasuyuki

doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyq013

Cited by 37 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In a network economy, it is, however, the social capital and trust (Maskell & Malmberg, 1999), not the stand-alone entrepreneur or, more generally, local agent shaping regional economic development. Matanle and Sato (2010) find such scale-crossing and collective effects in depopulated, shrinking rural regions of Japan where they are being taken 'at varying scales of intervention by official bodies, business leaders, volunteers and social and environmental entrepreneurs' (Matanle & Sato, 2010, p. 205). As a matter-of-fact, enhancing shared trust and promoting innovation based upon common actions and learning are two essential elements of planning practice which supports sustainable economic development in non-core regions.…”

Section: Alternative Approaches To Development In Non-core Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-thinking non-core regions: planning strategies and practices beyond growth

Leick

Lang

2017

European Planning Studies

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Periods of ongoing growth in the economy and demographics have come to a halt for many European regions for various reasons, challenging their economic development prospects. Despite the heterogeneous nature of stagnation, decline, peripheralization or even stigmatization to be found there, these configurations 'beyond growth' have in common that short-term 'fire-fighting' policy approaches aiming to foster regional economic growth face some important limitations. We argue that this has to do, among other things, with the overall direction of established and orthodox planning approaches that are predominantly based on growth-oriented paradigms and implicitly or explicitly work with dichotomous categories such as core-periphery and metropolitan versus non-metropolitan spaces; these do, however, not capture local realities in these cases. Using the notion of non-core regions, we plead for conceptualizing non-core regions and their regional economic development trajectories in different ways: thinking 'beyond growth'. Such alternative ideas should be informed by alternative understandings of growth, development and sustainability in order to influence theories and concepts, but also to support new approaches to planning practice. To this aim, we discuss non-core regions from a social constructivist perspective, elaborating some points of departure for conceptualizing and practising regional planning 'beyond growth'.

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Section: Alternative Approaches To Development In Non-core Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-thinking non-core regions: planning strategies and practices beyond growth

Leick

Lang

2017

European Planning Studies

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“…In the context of a decline in the overall national population, in Japan, mountain villages are most severely affected by depopulation and ageing (Matanle et al, 2011;Matanle and Sato, 2010). The fast-spreading 'marginal settlement' (genkai shū raku) phenomenon refers to rural communities that have reached the limits of their manageability due to dramatic depopulation, and where people aged 65 years or older make up more than half the total population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownership of assets as a development potential for rural Japan?

Feldhoff

2012

Urban Des Int

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In the context of a decline in its overall population, Japan's non-metropolitan areas are most severely affected by the ongoing demographic change. The fast-spreading 'marginal settlement' (genkai shū raku) phenomenon, which refers to communities that have reached the limits of their manageability due to depopulation and ageing, requires a fundamental shift in Japan's policy response to trends of regional abandonment and collapse. The article analyses current and future economic and socio-demographic challenges facing shrinking communities in Japan, and assesses the development and institutional context of government policies related to depopulating mountain areas in particular. It argues that shrinking communities should abandon the expectation of externally induced local revitalization and concentrate on asset-based community development. Community ownership of assets is discussed as a creative and innovative means to facilitate local engagement, foster local place attachment and thereby strengthen the resilience of rural communities and their independence from central government control.

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“…Globally, population growth is theorized to end around the end of the present century, but much sooner across the developed world (Lutz, Sanderson & Sherbov 2004;Davoudi, Wishardt & Strange 2010;Reher 2007, Lee & Reher 2011. Reports from newly depopulating countries such as Japan are largely negative, indicating reduced investment in local infrastructure, widespread abandonment of schools, homes and business, and general social, economic and environmental damage outside of the main cities; at the same time, opportunities arising from a potential 'depopulation dividend' (Matanle 2017) need to be engaged with in a timely manner, long before local councils and similar agencies are overwhelmed with sustained depopulation that they have not been anticipating (Matanle & Sato 2010;Audirac 2012;Martinez-Fernandez, Kubo, Noya & Weyman 2012;McMillan 2016).…”

Section: Natalie Jackson and Lars Brabynmentioning

confidence: 99%