Paper short abstract:

This presentation explores how locals in regional cities experiment with non-authoritarian ways of collective decision-making in an attempt to revitalize the places they call home. This study is based on an ongoing fieldwork in Tatsuno City, which was recently designated a depopulating area.

Paper long abstract:

Demographic decline, economic recession, and the disintegration of local communities have been permanent features of remote and rural areas in Japan. These tendencies, however, have become increasingly pronounced in many of Japan’s regional cities (chihō toshi) since the 2010s. This presentation offers an ethnographic account of Tatsuno City, a regional city in Hyogo prefecture that has been designated a depopulating area in 2021. At this critical juncture, it explores how locals collectively attempt to mitigate the effects of depopulation. Typically described as consensus-based, decision-making in rural settings can be heavily subject to vertical interpersonal relationships based on seniority. These stiff relationships are a significant reason for the outflow of youth in rural areas.

This presentation draws on insights from home-making theory and anarchist anthropology, as it demonstrates how the idea of home can act as a catalyst for social change. Specifically, these changes are noticeable in the locals' decision-making process. It shows how a multi-generation collective of individuals has come together in an attempt to revitalize the area while attempting to avoid seniority-based authority. Then, it goes on to shed light on the various difficulties experienced using these non-authoritarian methods, and how they are dealt with by the group members accordingly.

This study contributes to the ongoing debate on “home-making.” Much of this research focuses on how urban areas can become the arena for various actors to make and contest attempts to make affectional ties with places. Whereas the existing literature is primarily based on a social-change-through-conflict model, I would like to explore how the idea of home can cause social change within a consensus model, as is characteristically found in rural Japan.