IPSI Case Study (Kanazawa University) as of Dec 2011

I met with Kanazawa-U’s Satoyama Satoumi Project head the other day to catch up with their recent developments. Mighty thankful to this super-busy professor for sparing a couple of hours on a fellow who has spent most of her fiscal year on her own research. With my current standing I have no intention to serve mouthpiece to the project. Good news is that a new portal seems to be in preparation, so you’d all know where to look for project updates in the near future.

Meanwhile let me guide you to a case description of the project submitted to IPSI over a year ago that appeared on their site last summer. The piece had been compiled as part of the university’s application procedure to IPSI as founding member (hence the second-person plural). With the rapidly evolving, multi-faceted nature of the project’s approach to rural revitalization, in partial response to the shifting political economy surrounding Japan and its academic institutions including recent developments in the CBD regime, any such description is bound to become obsolete in a few months’ time. I hope at least to have captured some of the larger institutional settings that have framed the development of the project as well as the less frequently acknowledged actors that have shaped its organizational learning process. Many thanks to all those who have contributed information to the then project newbie. (The smiley? I think that was "Fig eight)" 8) ) 

Edited 20140331: renewed link to the IPSI case study; smiley has been fixed ;)

Here's a flyer for KU's latest event on the "global" front: (PDF)

I'm not involved but if you're interested, contact details are available at the very bottom. The seminar's scheduled 14 Jan* and requires preregistration. Not sure if doors are still open but flyer came in late last night, so...

(*Date corrected from 14 Feb to 14 Jan.)

Belated Season's Greetings 2012/2013

Hi everyone!

First of all, my sincere apologies for the hiatus. I was pleasantly surprised at the considerable views the blog enjoys 21 months after the last update. Thank you all for your visits.

I had started this blog as a personal project that went alongside my previous employment: a university-run regional revitalization program at the tip of Noto Peninsula. After the program’s successful termination in March this year, I left to resume life as ABD and unpaid fellow. I had then thought to abandon this blog imbued with references to my previous work arrangement. (ETA: the program site linked in past articles has been taken over by a successive program launched in Oct 2012 for which I did not apply.)

Nine months on I still have no idea what I will be doing next spring except that I finish my dissertation as soon as possible. I do enjoy life in Noto nonetheless, writing up while observing Noto’s “satoyama-satoumi phenomenon” from a slightly different angle. It was my interest, after all, in the political ecology of biodiversity conservation and value-creation at the rural periphery that ran through my doctoral study in anthropology / area studies on Malawi that had brought me to Noto. As I dedicate nearly all my waking hours to dissertation writing, I may stumble upon a few points here and there relevant to the blog theme that I might like to share.

I thank you again for the many visits.  

Have a wonderful New Year & hope to see you more in 2013!

The Satoyama Satoumi Project Portal (in English, tentative) is up!

It's been nearly two months since I mentioned our need for an English language portal for the Satoyama Satoumi Project, Kanazawa University. I am pleased to announce the launch of 

The English Portal for the Satoyama Satoumi Project, Kanazawa University.

http://adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/satoyama/en/ -> http://www.adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/satoyama/en/

The site is at its evolving stage as are our projects. We plan to replace it with something more comprehensive in the future, but since it's taking forever with the thesis supervision and the fiscal year-end and whatnot,, Meanwhile we've uploaded the Web version of our “turning the world from its tip” themed leaflet from COP10 Nagoya. Hats off to the Satoyama Meister students who have assisted in the work:

• COP10 theme design … Yuki Hagino
• Web design … Takaaki Kobayashi
• English text edit … Rachel Olanoff (auditor)

If the site image does not accurately reflect the individual designers' work, the blame goes to the coordinatior (me). We did this bit of work in a hurry to meet  the First Global Conference on the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), 10-11 Mar. I'm writing this from Nagoya right now as Kanazawa University will be presenting at the Public Forum on the morning of the 11th.

See you there!

Satoyama in Swedish

I just received two copies of the Swedish Magazine "Natur" from Mats Hellmark. They ran a coverage on Noto satoyama and the COP10 Nagoya. Some of it can be seen here:
http://sn.snf.se/sveriges-natur/artikel.cfm?CFID=21089&CFTOKEN=26919258&id=1593
As we are barely getting used to having Noto's satoyama being covered in English, now we have something in Swedish.
Thanks, Mats, for the great work!

Kanazawa University's Satoyama Satoumi Project Page

Yesterday I mentioned Kanazawa-U's need for a web portal for non-Japanese readers interested in our satoyama-satoumi related activities. Here's our current portal in Japanese: http://www.adm.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/satoyama/

At the time of the launch of this portal, we were representing ourselves as an aggregate of various ongoing projects including our "Noto Satoyama Meister" Training Program. By fall last year the "metaproject" has been integrated into the formal organizational structure of Kanazawa University. Now we have the "Kakuma Satoyama Headquarters" at the University Main Campus, and "Noto Operating Unit" at our Noto Gakusha, reflecting our bifocal approach to satoyama research and revitalization.

Getting Kanazawa University into the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative and whatnot

If you've followed the Japanese Satoyama movement, you couldn't have missed CBD COP10 Nagoya and its decision to support the Satoyama Initiative. COP10 saw the launch of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) with Kanazawa University as one of its founding members.
Getting KU into IPSI and serving its contact person have, in fact, been part of my side assignments since last fall (and poor excuse for not updating). Now that the IPSI site is up, we're faced with the fact that KU has yet to construct a web portal to introduce its satoyama-related activities to the non-Japanese speaking world (hence its outgoing link to the exchange students' portal). Here comes the new side assignment.
Spreading new ideas across the globe is a painstaking task. First came the brochures, the exhibit panels, the novelty goods we have prepared for COP10. Prior to that we had next to nothing to hand to non-Japanese visitors eager to learn about our projects. We've actually come quite far in several months, and we're getting there -- almost. So again, do stay tuned.

ETA: Creating a website may be a good excuse to try and post those months-old articles