特集 インフラを見る、インフラとして見る
高齢化する人・街・インフラ
流雪溝をめぐる協働性の再構築
2018 年 83 巻 3 号 p. 459-468
詳細
2018 年 83 巻 3 号 p. 459-468
A "snow-flowing gutter" is a system for treating snow that is unique to Japan, in which roadside gutters, installed for river water or treated sewage, are used to transport snow dumped into it away to a river. Snow shoveled off from walkways or roadways and piled onto the roadside needs to be manually dumped into the gutters by residents for it to be continually treated.
The snow-flowing gutter is thus a type of social infrastructure necessary for people's daily lives, requiring human labor and the cooperation of road administrators to be effectively used. It differs from other snow-treatment methods insofar as the infrastructure calls for residents to cooperate in operating the system, as it can function only when the whole community uses it. Cold, snowy weather has historically consolidated relations among residents using the facility. Now, however, such communities face the problems of aging and the degradation of the snow-flowing gutters, creating a crisis in the snow-treatment system.
From an anthropological standpoint, the cooperation of the community required to use the gutters can be treated as an issue of development anthropology.
Though the cooperation by the community members is overwhelmingly accepted as a concept supporting bloated municipal services, development anthropology actively discusses the issue in two ways: either affirmatively by those trying to find new meaning in its concept, or negatively by those concerned about its adverse effects on regional development.
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