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for reexaminations of their relationships with the national government, the greater Japanese
society, and their own local environments.
In this paper I draw on fieldwork undertaken in the village of Otaki () located in Naganos
Kiso Valley () and employ the concept of subjectivity to examine the experience of
national forest governance at the local level. I also discuss resilience thinking as a potentially
useful framework for thinking about and implementing governance that is capable of fostering
resilient socio-ecological communities by recognizing multiple subjectivities, incorporating local
citizens, and seeking to build consensus for decision making.
Approximately 30% of the forests that blanket the majority of
the Japanese archipelago are governed by the national forestry
agency (rinyachou) (Forestry Agency of Japan
2007). Humans have lived in, used, and modified nearly all of
Japans forests for thousands of years; therefore, it is reasonable
to think of forest environments and their accompanying human
communities as single phenomena (Bale 1998), which I refer to
in this paper as socio-natural environments. Bennett has
argued that socio-natural environments are created as nature is incorporated into socio-cultural
realms through the actions of humans (Bennett 1976). Seen in this way, understanding natural
environments is impossible without understanding the socio-cultural processes with which they
are so intricately interwoven.
Figure 1: Distribution of
national forests in Japan
(Forestry Agency of Japan
2007)
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Subjectivity and the environment
Humans encounter the natural world through sets of socio-cultural beliefs and understandings,
which are carried not only in the minds of individual actors, but also stored and distributed by
informal and formal institutions such as religious customs, festivals, educational systems, and
government agencies. Drawing on post-structuralist approaches, environmental anthropologists
have explored the ways in which cultural discourses influence the ways in which humans
subjectively interpret the natural world through processes whereby realms of possible utterances
are either narrowed or expanded according to the subtle workings of power (Dove 2005; Hualkof
& Escobar 1998). When understood as single phenomena, exploring subject formation in relation
to socio-natural environments requires that attention be given to three interrelated notions of
subject. The first is subject referring to human (and perhaps non-human) actors as self-
referential subjects in their relationships to the socio-natural environment around them. The
second is subject as applied to human and non-human actors in the environment whom are
subordinated. The third relates to the environment and/or its constituent parts, which become
subjects vis--vis human actors (Agrawal 2005; Foucault 1978). Of course these different
subjects overlap to varying extents, so it is also important to attend to the grey areas that
emerge from this overlap.
In terms of socio-natural environments it is important to note that subjects are not only ideational,
but also come to be expressed in the material environment through the practices of humans.
Socio-natural environments are made and remade through the cyclical interaction of thoughts,
practices, and materializations. In this milieu, subjects are formulated and reformulated through
interplays with power that work to shape socio-natural environments by enabling and disabling
possible forms of expression, which come to be embodied in institutions and materialized through
human use of the natural environment.
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Timber extraction, governance, and subject formation in Otaki
The village of Otaki sits in a narrow mountain valley at the
base of the holy mountain Ontake-san . Lush
forests cover the mountains low foothills that surround the
village. While lower sections of these hills, near the
central part of the village, are comprised for the most part
of broadleaf trees including oak, birch and beech, the
upper sections are dominated by pine varietiesincluding
the five famous trees () of the region (see Table 1).
In addition, large swaths of the mountains in Otaki are
Fig. 2: Map of Nagano showing
the location of Otaki
Table 1: Common trees of Otaki
Japanese name Scientific name Common name
hinoki Chamaecyparis obtuse Hinoki cypress
sawara Chamaecyparis pisifera Sawara cypress
nezuko Thuja standishii Japanese thuja
koyamaki Sciadopitys verticillata Japanese umbrella pine
Kisos
five
famoustrees
asunaro Thujopsis dolabrataJapanese
elk-horn cedar
sugi Cryptomeria japonica Japanese cedar
akamatsu Pinus densifloraJapanese
red pine
Conifer/
softwoods
karamatsu
Larix kaempferi
Larix leptolepis Japanese larch
konara Quercus serrata variety of oak
buna Fagus crenata Japanese beech
Broadleaf/
hardwoods
kanbaBetula platyphylla
Japanese
white birch
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covered only in saplings, while patches of
naked earth dot some sections higher up. Forests in Otaki have long been valued as sources of
timber, and therefore embody a history of exploitation by powerful elites.
Though timber extraction in Otaki began in the sixteenth century when Toyotomi Hideyoshi
seized forestlands in the Kiso Valley to secure timber for monumental construction projects, it
intensified after the Meiji Restoration (1868 A.D.). Under the Meiji regime forests in the Kiso
Valley were recast and claimed as private resources of the imperial family. Western ideas of
private property were introduced through the imposition of a tax system in 1874 A.D. and local
residents, who were accustomed to communal-use of forests, were required to submit proof of
ownership regarding forestlands. Those for which ownership was unproven (which was the
majority) became the property of the imperial family; known
as goryourin () (Ushiomi 1968). Furthermore, in
1903 an Imperial Forest management office was established
in the town of Kiso-fukushima () and three years
later work began on a forest railroad system for hauling
timber. This railroad system eventually stretched into every
crook and cranny of the Kiso Valley, with over 70
kilometers of rail laid in the Otaki Valley alone (see Fig. 3).
It operated almost non-stop until 1976 when the last train loaded with timber rolled out of Otakis
Ugui River Valley (Morishita 1998).
Fig. 3: Map depicting forest rail lines in the
Otaki Valley (Morishita 1998:210-211)
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This history of timber extraction has profound implications for Otakis modern socio-natural
environment. Subjective imagining of the socio-natural environment (environmental subject)1
that was formulated alongside the emergence of the Japanese state under the Meiji regime
included concepts of private property and ownership that allowed for the extension of state
sovereignty over nearly 80% of forestlands in the Kiso Valley (93% in Otaki). Within this
environmental subject, forestlands began to be envisioned as resources in part through a process
of simplification that Scott has characterized as myopia on one or two land values that
misrepresents the broad range of biological, spiritual, social, and other values that lands hold
(Scott 1998). To be sure the socio-natural environment of Otaki contains a multiplicity of other
values, many socio-spiritual in nature due to its proximity to Ontake-san (for a partial treatment
of spirituality related to Ontake-san see the chapter "Mountain Oracles" in Blacker 1999).
Timber and environmental change
In Japan, early deforestation events during the Edo Period were soon followed by the
development of afforestation techniques, to the point that some have called Japan an ecological
success story (see Diamond 2005). Indeed, two-thirds of the nation remains forested. However,
this statistic belies a more complicated history
of landscape transformation. The Kiso Valley
has undergone several periods of over-cutting
and deforestation (Totman 1989), to the
extent that, even when referring to the Edo
Period, success may not be the best word to
describe the governance of forests there.
Table 2: Volume of lumber extracted from the Kiso Valley, 1948-2007
0.000
100.000
200.000
300.000
400.000
500.000
600.000
700.000
800.000
1948
1951
1954
1957
1960
1963
1966
1969
1972
1975
1978
1981
1984
1987
1990
1993
1996
2003
2006
timber volume (sq.meters)
Figure 4: Volume of timber extracted from the Kiso Valley, 1948-2007
1I refer to particular subjective formulations as environmental subjects, which I use
heuristically to talk about discursive arrangements that tend to be linked to institutions. In reality,
such subjective formations are much more fluid and dynamic.
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Its arguable that the primary goal of afforestation in Japan has for hundreds of years been the
production of timber trees. In this sense, forest environments in the Kiso Valley embody histories
of conversion away from mixed
broadleaf/conifer forests to more simple
forests comprised mainly of timber varieties
(see Table 1). The post-war years, in
particular, were devastating for forests in the
Kiso Valley, where hageyamabald
mountainswere common sights. Figure 4
graphs the volume of timber extracted from
the Kiso Valley from 1948-2007 (Hirada 1999). In response to the heavy felling of the post-war
years, forest conversion hastened as timber varieties (especially fast growing karamatsu) were
planted to meet the demands of reconstruction. Figure 5 depicts the present-day composition of
forests in the Kiso Valley.
Figure 5: Present-day structure of Kiso Valley forests
The consequences of felling and forest conversion in Otaki are many, and difficult to fully
decipher. Among other ecological changes, forest conversion has contributed to loss of animal
habitat, especially mammalian habitat, in the oku-yama (back or deep part of the
mountains). Forests located near villages, on the other hand, having not undergone such intense
conversion, tend to be comprised of fruit-bearing trees and therefore remain suitable habitat for
mammalian species. Mr. Kurihara, a lifetime resident of Otaki who maintains his own forest, put
it this way:
Fundamentally, because there is no food in the mountains [animals] come
to the village. And then once they remember the flavor of delicious food,
its a matter of course that they will come again. Without humans
knowing it, they made it so that animals come. Thats what I myself
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think. Its because when they plant trees in the mountains, its trees that
can turn into money [timber trees]. So, I mean they dont plant trees that
arent . . . like that, you know, [they dont plant] various kinds. Ive
always thought that, yeah. So, with this thinking that you can just do as
you please with natural power and create nature the way you think,
theres no way you can do it (Personnel interview 05/21/08).
As a result, encounters between humans and animals, in particular Japanese macaques (Macaca
fuscata), Japanese moon bears (Ursus thibetanus japonicus, a variety of Asian black bear),
Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus), and wild boar (Sus scrofa), have become commonplace in
many mountain villages, including Otaki (Knight 2003b; Sprague & Iwasaki 2006). The signs of
human/wildlife conflicts are arrayed across the Otaki landscape: nets, wire fences, and other
contraptions are staples of agricultural fields; school children are outfitted with bear bells for the
walk to school; and monkey dogs are now being trained to help keep watch over fields.
Subject deployment and the creation of a resource landscape
A history of timber extraction in Otaki has contributed to the formation of an environmental
subject in which forests area viewed as resources under the sovereignty of the national
government, to be employed in specific ways for the benefit of the national citizenry. In the
Meiji period this environmental subject was formalized through the creation of an arrangement of
governing institutions, through which it was then deployed and carved onto the land itself through
intensive timber extraction. The result of this social, cultural, political, and physical deployment
was the transformation of Otaki into what I call a resource landscapean ideological and
material manifestation of the environmental subject.
Though restructured after WWII by the Occupation Authority, the governing institutions
established still exist today. A look at current publications of the Forest Agency and its branch
offices in the Kiso Region reveals ideological continuities with the environmental subject first
formulated in the past. For example, a 2008 publication, entitled National Forest, the peoples
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forest, produced by the Central District Forestry Office (chubu-shinrinn-kanri-kyoku
), which controls a huge swath of forested land located in four prefectures (including
Nagano where Otaki is located), begins by offering a timeline that works, through images and
text, to genealogically link the office to the Owari Clan that controlled the areas forests during
the Edo Period (1603-1868). In one small passage it is suggested that:
From the closing days of the Edo Period to the first years of the Meiji Era,
the momentary abandonment of traditional management plans was something
that was unavoidable due to the fragility of the [Owari] clan's finances andthe confusion of the restoration. Still, the forest resources cultivated during
the period when the revolution began far exceeded expectations (Central
District Forest Management Office 2008:3).
Interestingly, no specific history is offered concerning forest management from the Meiji Period
or beyond. In this publication forests are conceptualized as a kind of inheritance of the nations
people. In fact, publications such as this often employ the terms kokumin-no-mori ,
meaning peoples or citizens forests, and kuni-no-zaisan, meaning the nations fortune
or inheritance. Furthermore, the genealogy presented works to legitimize the Central District
Forestry Offices right to govern these forests as they see fit (presumably for the good the
citizenry). Just as they were in the Meiji Era, forests are formulated as resources, and later in the
publication the reader is presented with a plethora of beneficial purposes to which the government
is putting them to use. The result is a host of hybrid specialized forests, including: water and
land protection forests, forest and human coexistence forests, scenery forests and resource
recycling forests. Scotts idea of myopic land values seems equally applicable here.
I have linked the formation and deployment of the environmental subject discussed above to a
history of timber extraction and environmental modification undertaken by the Japanese state.
However, the arrangement of institutions that draw upon this environmental subject stretches
beyond the level and scope of national and regional governing institutions. Although I didnt
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touch upon it above, the history of timber extraction and reforestation in the Kiso Valley is
closely linked to international flows of timber and Japans major role as an importer (Knight
1997; 2003a; Seo & Taylor 2003). The development of water resources in Otaki is also linked to
broader flows of capital, both financial and human, but is, in its physical manifestations, on the
whole a localized phenomenon. Here I will give a brief account of the impacts that water and
tourism have had as transformative processes in Otakis socio-natural environment.
Water and tourism deployment at the local level
Due to the pervasiveness of the environmental subject linked with state organized timber
extraction, which I argue had transformed the Otaki area into a resource landscape, when a plan
was proposed in the 1950s to build a large dam in the center of the village, the protests of local
residents were easily subordinated to the needs of the broader nation. Along with (and as parts
of) the Otaki environment, local residents too had become subjects, and were therefore subject
themselves to the influences of the broader national and international socio-natural environments
to which they were now intimately connected.
Makio Dam () is part of the largerAichi-yousui () project, which was funded
in part by the World Bank to deliver agricultural and drinking water to the city of Nagoya and
other communities in Aichi and Gifu prefectures. Completed in 1961, the dam displaced 645
residents from 137 homes and flooded 247 hectares of Otakis most scenic and agriculturally
productive land. In fact, another large dam, Miura ( ), was completed in a largely
unpopulated area in 1945 by Kansai Denryoku () using forced Chinese and Korean
laborers. In addition to the dam, these laborers also dug by hand a series of tunnels for carrying
water that run, mostly out of sight, through the mountains surrounding the village. The tunnels
transect the major streams in the Otaki watershed, diverting water to locations where it is used to
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spin turbines for creating electricity to serve the greater Kansai area, including Osaka, Kobe, and
Kyoto. Together, Makio and Miura dams are capable of holding 137,216,000 cubic meters of
water. Through this series of dams and tunnels Otakis water, like its trees, have been
conceptually and physically transformed into resources to serve the greater good of the nation.
This sentiment is reflected in the third verse of the Otaki Elementary and Junior High Schools
school song, which was composed soon after the completion of Makio Dam:
Filled with one ton of water,
the ripples of Lake Ontake
wish for the glory of the nation
and become a badge of our sincere feelings
for the industry of the blessed nation,
the measure our hometowns happiness
Today, local residents, who have explained to me ambivalence over lyrics that seem to celebrate
the trauma inflicted by the construction of the dam, skip the third verse when singing the song.
The Otaki Village government received a compensation payment of two hundred million yen
(about two million U.S. dollars) after the completion of Makio Dam in 1961, which they put to
use developing tourist infrastructure on Ontake-san. A ski resort and a nature park were built on
national forest land about 800 meters below the summit of the mountain and forest roads were
paved to provide access. For a time in the 1960s Otaki boasted the longest ski slope in the
country, and the tourists flocked. Ive heard from residents stories of garbage bags full of 10,000
yen notes and of cars parked along the roadway for kilometers. These stories are likely
exaggerated, but they make the point: business was booming in Otaki. However, to make a long
story short, excesses and financial mismanagement along with a decline in visitor numbers
brought serious financial crisis to the village. Today, although Otaki is one of Japans most
financially troubled municipalities, the ski resort is still in operation. However, serious doubts
remain among residents concerning the decision to pursue tourist development on Ontake-san, a
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sacred mountain that has long drawn religious worshipers and provided modest but stable
economic benefit to the village.
Local subjects
The decision by the Otaki village government to develop forestlands on Ontake-san suggests that
the environmental subject, which I have labeled resource landscape, formulated and
institutionalized in the emergence of the modern Japanese state had by the later half of the 20th
century pervaded to the local level. To say that the broader environmental subject which Ive
outlined in this paper alone impelled government officials and residents in Otaki to pursue the
path of development would be imprudent. However, it is worthwhile to contemplate the ways in
which in environmental subjectivities, through their cultural, social, and physical manifestations,
interact with and influence the beliefs, views, and practices of actors at the local level of the
socio-natural environment. I abstain in my analysis from characterizing the formation and
diffusion of environmental subjectivities as a process of domination of one over another; and
contend that subject formulations at the local level are not annihilated, or exchanged one for the
other. Rather, I envision the process as occurring through a continuous tension where
subjectivities are formulated and reformulated by actors in response to ideational, institutional,
and material forms and activities of human, as well as non-human, entities in a socio-natural
environment.
For residents of Otaki, why did it make sense to pursue development on Ontake-san, a location of
cultural, spiritual, and economic importance? What can this decision tell us about the
environmental subjects that exist among Otakis local residents? And also, what might it suggest
about residents as subjects dwelling in the environment?
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In my conversations with residents of the village I have not heard of opposition to development
on Ontake-san at the time when it first began. This could of course simply be due to bias in my
own research, or it could point to a lack of recollection on the part of residents. However, I have
heard on several occasions of opposition among residents to the construction of Makio Dam,
which makes the later seem unlikely. Obviously, it is impossible to talk about Otakis residents
as a monolithic group, however it is possible to speculate about why dissent to development plans
on Ontake-san didnt or couldnt take form, and if it did, why it was ignored. In a 2006
newspaper interview, the former mayor of Otaki recalled a time just after construction on Makio
Dam had begun when a co-worker exclaimed, From now on there is going to be a lot of
industry (Tojo 2006). Unfortunately, there is no way to read into the context or get a sense of
the tone with which the co-worker made this statement. However, a quote by the former mayor
himself during a speech given to residents of Otaki in 2004 after a failed attempt at municipal
amalgamation revealed the villages financial troubles is illuminating. Perhaps if the ski hill
wasnt here we could probably have become sufficiently independent. However, because the
dam was built back then, we have to follow this road. The only thing we can do is go with it [the
ski hill] as the core (Tojo 2006). These statements allude to the realities of a community in the
midst of changes to which its ability to respond is limited. The co-workers statement, whether
made in elation or dread, suggests, as does the former mayors statement, a feeling of inevitability
concerning the transformation of the Otaki landscape by broader forces. Considering these
statements, it seems that in the aftermath of the colossal Makio Dam project, which deeply
transformed the socio-natural environment of the village, the decision to develop Ontake-san may
have seemed a reasonable, if not necessary, step for the community to take.
Reason, of course, is only one cultural tool employed by actors in their encounters with the world
around them. While development of the local natural environment may have seemed reasonable,
this does not indicate a complete allegiance to the predominant environmental subject of
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resource landscape. Rather, it speaks to the status of residents in Otaki as subjects themselves;
as integral parts of a socio-natural environment, which has been subordinated to help meet the
needs of the broader nation. Otakis residents occupy a middle ground where they both formulate
subjects and are formulated as subjects. Though the subjective ways in which residents of Otaki
encounter, think about, and use the local environment differ greatly, several general elements are
discernable. I touch briefly on two here.
First, Otaki is a religious landscape. The villages social, cultural, economic, and even ecological
histories are closely linked to Ontake-san and its worshipers who, for hundreds of years, have
gathered at the mountain. A physical arrangement of religious objectsspirit stones, shrines, and
statueson the mountain are a constant reminder of its sacred status. What can be called a
religious environmental subject has long been institutionalized in a configuration of rituals,
shrines, mountain huts, and other locations of religious practice in the village that have deep
historical connections to the worshipers of Otake-san.
Second, Otaki is also an agricultural landscape. In the village agriculture has social, economic
and cultural significance for most residents. In particular, red beets, known as aka-kabu,
as well as sunki, which is the pickled leaves of the red beet plant, both have long cultural
histories in the village. Sunki, especially, holds significance because making it requires the use of
sunki reserved from the previous years batch, meaning that the main ingredient for and
knowledge of how to make sunki is passedgenerationally within individual households. In this
sense, household identities are maintained, in part, through food-making activities.
Though its important to take note of these alternative subjective conceptions, I argue that the
environmental subject of resource landscape, in its cultural, social (institutional), and physical
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manifestations has come to be a force capable of subordination and transformation of Otakis
socio-natural environment. [. . .] villagers dont see the forest, was the assessment of Otakis
current mayor in a 2006 newspaper article about the village. He continued, Otaki is currently
close to zero policy options. You cant make proposals like, if we do this. The national forest
and the dam; even though the town has natural resources, they are bureaucratized, so to speak. I
think the first thing is that ideas that come from the people are necessary (Tojo 2006). The
mayors comments speak to the spurious position of village residents as subjects of subordination
(subjects), but also speak to their potential for resistance through the promotion of their own
subjective visions of the socio-natural environment. With a rapidly declining population and
continuing financial instability, the village of Otaki is literally facing an existential crisis.
Resistance to and reformulation of the dominant environmental subject in order to obtain greater
recognition, access, and power regarding the governance of forests in Otaki, I argue, are essential
projects for residents in Otaki to secure a positive future for themselves and the socio-natural
environment in which they dwell. Before concluding, I offer a brief evaluation of resilience
thinking as a conceptual framework for increasing the roles of local actors in environmental
governance.
Subjectivity and resilience thinking
Resilience thinking developed from complex systems theory as a way to think about stability and
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Figure 6: The Adaptive Cycle (Resilience Alliance 2008)
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change in ecological systems. In resilience thinking systems are theorized to be capable of
multiple states of relative stability, called stability domains. Change is conceived of as a
ubiquitous and unpredictable component of all systems; one that is capable of collapse, but also
renewal. With change as a driving force, it is theorized that systems move through a series of
four stages in a process termed the adaptive cycle (Figure 6). Resilience therefore is defined
as the degree of disturbance a system can absorb before the variables and processes that govern
that systems behavior are altered to the point that its basic character changes and the system tips
into a new stability domain (Holling & Gunderson 2002).
Though resilience thinking developed around studies of ecological systems, increasing
recognition of the unique role that humans play in ecosystems is prompting more and more
research into what have been labeled social-ecological systems (Berkes et al 2003; Jianguo et al
2007; Olsson et al 2004; Walker et al 2002). However, many studies in resilience thinking
continue to give only superficial attention to the social realm of humans, and there have been
recent calls for further inquiry into operations of power, discourse, and normative framings in
studies of resilience (Leach 2008).
Resilience thinking is attractive as a conceptual framework for investigating power, subject
formation, and governance in Otaki and elsewhere for several reasons; I will discuss three here.
First, in its focus on complexity, uncertainty and unpredictability, resilience thinking holds
potential for researchers and other actors to offer challenges to traditional forms of governance
that secure power by monopolizing legitimacy through the deployment of evidence-based
discourses rooted in sound-science. In fact, it has been argued that science-based management
often causes instability in social-ecological systems by isolating and focusing on the optimization
of particular elements without giving proper attention to the overall working of the system
(Holling et al 2002). Through such challenges to dominant ways of knowing come opportunities
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to raise the visibility of alternative voices and incorporate a greater breadth of knowledge and
information into governing arrangements. Second, the recognition of multiple stability domains
in resilience thinking opens the door for discussions of subjectivity and normative discourses in
studies of governance. The notion of multiple stability domains suggests that there are concurrent
ways of knowing, dwelling in, and engaging with socio-natural environments. There may be a
temptation to link the concept of stability domain to the concept of subject that Ive discussed
in this paper. Indeed, because the process of defining stability domains is always a social one
that occurs through interactions between various stakeholders: politicians, policy-makers,
residents, activists, scholars, scientists, and others, at times a particular stability domain may
come to embody a particular environmental subject (such as the subject of resource landscape).
However, in an applied sense it may be more productive to think of stability domains as potential
locations of convergence and consensus between stakeholders. Social conflict, as much as
anything, has been suggested as a catalyst for sudden change in systems; therefore, finding ways
of widening particular stability domains to accommodate various actors, as well as other non-
human elements, may well work to make systems more robust and stable. Finally, in its focus on
systems2
, resilience thinking offers a framework for thinking about and implementing socio-
natural environmental governance that is integrative and recognizes the need for networks of
institutions that are capable of bridging levels through active learning and communication. This
type of framework, known as adaptive governance or adaptive co-management (Folke et al
2005; Olsson et al 2004), opens pathways for the involvement of local stakeholders while
remaining cognizant of the roles that higher level institutions play in the governance of socio-
natural environments.
2 System is the nomenclature in resilience thinking, so Ive used it here. However, I feel the term socio-
natural environment, which Ive used throughout this paper, is more encompassing and may prove to be
conceptually useful as studies of resilience move forward.
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Conclusions
The formation, institutional formalization, and physical translation of environmental subjects can
have profound impacts on socio-natural environments, and, in particular, on the human
communities that dwell therein. In this paper Ive shown how the formulation and diffusion of a
particular environmental subject in relation to forests in Japans Kiso Valley has had far-reaching
impacts on the local socio-natural environment there. In addition, Ive touched on the tensions
created at the local level as residents encounter this broader environmental subject, and the
influences it has on both their own subjective formulations of the environment and their activities
as subjects in the environment. Lastly, I offered a brief overview and evaluation of resilience
thinking as a potential framework for thinking about and actively engaging issues of
environmental governance in Otaki and elsewhere.
The case of Otaki offers insights into the diachronic processes whereby environmental subjects
are formulated, institutionalized, and transcribed onto physical environments and the effects this
has on the ways in which local actors encounter, think about, and engage with the socio-natural
environment. In Japan, residents of rural communities like Otaki are beginning to feel the weight
of Japans modernity. The consequences of past state policies and practices in relation to forests
and other environments are beginning to manifest just as the central government seeks to wriggle
free from the political entanglements that have tied its fate to rural communities in the post-war
period (Babb 2005; McDonald 1997). The situation in many rural communities is bringing about
reexaminations of relationships with the central government and the larger nation. In Otaki,
notions of monolithic national forests are beginning to be challenged by local residents, both
intellectually and through the politics of daily life as actors engage with the environment.
Finding open spaces (social, cultural, political, and physical) in the socio-natural environment for
the formulation of new subjectivitiesnew ways of engaging the natural worldis a vital project
if residents of rural communities are to become viable actors in governing arrangements.
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More broadly, as humankind struggles to understand our seemingly unlimited abilities to modify
the Earth, as well as our very limited abilities to grasp the complex consequences of those
modifications, issues of governance take on great significance. Anthropologist John Bennett
suggested that, . . . mans use of Nature is inextricably intertwined with mans use of Man, and
[. . .] remedies for destructive use of the environment must be found within the social system
itself (Bennett 1976:311). We live in a world that increasingly seeks answers supported by
scientific fact, yet we witness again and again in our societies the mutability of facts and the
ways they are (mis)used to meet human agendas, whether this be denying climate change or
justifying war. This isnt to say that scientific knowledge shouldnt play a vital role; however, the
socio-cultural dimensions of socio-natural environments demand that we give adequate
consideration to operations of power and discourse in relation to environmental governance.
Doing so requires that attention be given to the ways in which environmental and human subjects
are formulated and disseminated and the effects this has on various actors and their ability to
participate in governance. Resilience thinking, with its focus on complexity and unpredictability
in socio-natural environments, and its calls for flexibility, inclusion, and collaboration, has
potential as a constructive framework for future work regarding governance. The active
involvement of social scientists in collaboration with local residents will be vital for adapting and
applying a resilience thinking framework to issues of environmental governance in Japan and
elsewhere.
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