Research
New Collaborative Research Publication: “Hybridising counterurbanisation: Lessons from Japan’s 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō” – Dr. Luke Dilley and Dr. Shogo Kudo
and , both of 麻豆直播’s Global Studies Program, along with of Newcastle University, one of 麻豆直播’s partners in the UK, and of Meiji University have published an article in Habitat International.
Abstract and Article Link
This paper examines the discourse and material manifestation of 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō, a phrase used in Japan to describe, primarily, highly mobile groups of urbanities who make regular visits to the countryside. Drawing on Japanese grey literature, secondary data analysis, national-level policy reports and exploratory fieldwork in the northwest of Japan, we argue that the concept of 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō offers a view of rural mobility quite different from more established views of counterurbanisation, at least in the way that it has been captured in the global north. As a concept, 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō invites us to move beyond simple and binary taxonomies of migration and settlement, and destabilizes the notion of rural vitality as being linked to rural populations that are spatially fixed and bounded. Further, the promotion of 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō in policy discourses in Japan has the potential to support new hybrid, fluid and place-based rural lifestyles that contribute to an interconnected global countryside. On the other hand, the discourse of 办补苍办别颈箩颈苍办ō might privilege certain modes of rural mobility and being, circumscribing the potentialities of these mobile groups.
Acknowledgements
Newcastle University provided funding to make the article open access.