Everyday Life-Environmentalism

Daisaku Yamamoto is Associate Professor of Geography and Asian Studies at Colgate University, U.S.A. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota. His recent published works include: Unravelling the Fukushima Disaster (2016) and Rebuilding Fukushima (2017) (co-edited with Mitsuo Yamakawa); “Nuclear-to-Nature Land Conversion” (Geographical Review, 2020); “Cursed Forever? Exploring Socio-Economic Effects of Nuclear Power Plant Closures Across Nine Communities in the United States” (Geoforum, 2022). Hiroyuki Torigoe is Professor at Otemae University, Japan, specialized in environmental sociology and folk cultural studies. He holds a PhD from the Tokyo University of Education, and has taught at Kwansei Gakuin University, the University of Tsukuba, and Waseda University. He was the President of the Japan Sociology Society and the President of Otemae University. He is best known for his pioneering work on life-environmentalism based on his extensive fieldwork in Japan and overseas. He has published over 20 single-authored books, 17 co-authored or edited books, and numerous articles.

1. Introduction
Daisaku Yamamoto

2. Theorizing Everyday Life: The Life-Environmentalist Way
Daisaku Yamamoto

Part I: Developmental Impulse and Everyday-Life Organizations

3. Local Rules: Sustaining Local Everyday Life with Aqua-Tourism
Takehito Noda

4. Coexistence without Consensus: The Role of a Life Organization in Mediating between Fishermen and Surfers in a Coastal Community
Shusuke Murata

5. When Civil Society Falls Short: Rural Community Response to a Resort Development Project
Daisaku Yamamoto and Yumiko Yamamoto

Part II: Governing Everyday-Life Spaces

6. From Dichotomous Interpretations to Spectrum Thinking: Formation of a Community Organization in a Nuclear Host Locality
Atsushi Yamamuro


7. “Public” (gong) as Village Norm: Urbanization and Community Response in China
Meifang Yan


8. Multilayered Commons Space: Dry Riverbed Use in a Local Community in Ibaraki, Japan
Takaaki Isogawa

Part III: Living with Disasters

9. Why Do Victims of Tsunami Return to the Coast?
Kyoko Ueda and Hiroyuki Torigoe

10. The Roots of Resilience: Forest Commons and the Cultivation and Disappearance of Livelihood Security in a Nuclear Disaster-Afflicted Community

Hiroyuki Kaneko

11. Apparitions and the Recovery of Livelihoods after the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster

Kiyoshi Kanebishi

Part IV: Historic Environment and Urban Communities

12. Living Traditional Culture: Gujo Dance in Hachiman Town, Gujo City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan

Shigekazu Adachi

13. Embracing the Enemy’s Legacy: Historical Environmental Preservation in Daegu, South Korea

Rie Matsui

14. Boxing Camp as a Community School: Local Boxers in Metro Manila, Philippines

Tomonori Ishioka

Part V: Critical Reflections and Prospects

15. Empirically Speaking: Life-Environmentalism, Environmental Justice and Feminist Political Ecology

Daisaku Yamamoto, Sophia Ferrero, and Keegan Kessler

16. Life-Environmentalism, Critiques, and Prospects: Focusing on the Experientialist Approach

Yasushi Arakawa

17. The Future of Life-Environmentalism: A Sympathetic Critique

Masaharu Matsumura

Part VI: Translated Excerpts from Sociological Theory of Environmental Problems (1989)

18. Original Introduction of Life-Environmentalism (1989)

Hiroyuki Torigoe