2024 Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 34-46
This study aims to clarify the 40-years process of residents-led rural community development, which began with the introduction of agricultural and rural development projects. We examined the developing and declining processes of the community development based on a societal system hypothesis that changes in the activities are caused by the relationships among various societal factors ; and discussed the issues for succession of the residents-led community development. Literature and interview survey were conducted in Koura Town, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As the results, the 40-years community development process was divided into four phases : Germination Phase (GP), Public-works-oriented Phase (PP), Ordinance-oriented Phase (OP), and Succession Phase (SP). Each phase was lasting about 10 years. From GP to OP, we identified that the community development system factors were formed in the order of [Awareness] of residents, [Partnerships] of diverse entities, [Organization] of residents, [Planning] by local organization, and [Rules] defining the mechanism. From OP to SP, the system declined in a complex manner, triggered by the decline of [Partnerships] and [Planning]. As issues for the succession of the community development system, our suggestion included following points : 1) verification of the current situation of the system factors based on the formulated [Rules] and 2) empowering the [Organization] by utilizing [Partnerships] and administrative support to the maintenance works of the agricultural facilities developed by the projects. These results support our hypothesis, which provides a novel perspective on community development planning theory.
