Course Programs

2024

Introduction to Sociology of the Co-existence with Nature

Code:G2B60136 / Instructor:KANAZAWA Kentaro

Course Description

Environmental sociology in Japan is based on “the sociology of environmental issues,” which aims to resolve problems like pollution and large-scale
development, and research on “the sociology of coexistence with nature,” which is driven by ethnology, anthropology, and area studies. The
Introduction to the Sociology of Environmental Coexistence course explores the characteristics of societies that have coexisted in harmony with the
natural environment. It covers topics such as local attempts to regenerate the environment, town planning that focuses on resource recycling, and the
coexistence of human society with nature on a global level. Through these lectures, students will develop the insight and creativity to ascertain what
the relationship between people and the environment was in the past and what it is like today.
In the first half of the course, students will examine the characteristics of societies that have coexisted in harmony with the natural environment, based
on the ways of life and subsistence patterns of indigenous peoples. The main reference will be the Baram River basin in Sarawak (Borneo), East
Malaysia. The course will provide an overview of the ways of life and subsistence patterns of hunter-gatherers living in the tropical rainforest, as well
as the characteristics of their food security and use of resources and energy. In the second half of the course, we will consider various issues related to
socioeconomic globalization, using global commodities and primary products as examples. While investigating the relationship between people and the
global environment, as well as the contemporary issues facing both, we will search for clues and possibilities for a society that causes as little damage
to others and the planet as possible.

Keywords

environmental coexistence, environmental issue, global environment, rainforest, huntergatherer, farmer , ecological resource, diversity, monoculture, human rights, environmental mindset

Course Plan

1. Introduction
2. History of the “People and the Environment”
3. Hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies
4. Questions from anthropology and area studies
5. Cultural ecology
6. Value-chain theory
7. Commons theory
8. Global commodities: Tropical timber
9. Global commodities: Palm oil
10. Certification system
11. Follow-the-thing approach
12. .Fair trade
13. The “McDonaldization” of society
14. Monocultures of the mind
15. Summary; class questionnaire