Social Capital of Local Residents in the Festival Process:

The Case of the Hikiyama Festival in Nagahama, Shiga

Abstract

In this paper, the author elucidates what social capital creates for the festivals in local districts. A lot of researchers have attempted to examine the functions of social networks, communications and partnerships among participants in festivals. They mainly focused on only the event process itself. However, all festivals and events are based on a daily life by local citizens. Participants create their relationship which is reflected on the festival on a daily basis. The author conducted the research the process of fundraising by organizers of festivals and focused on the Hikiyama Festival in Nagahama, Shiga. The author investigated the relationships and fundraising process among the participants. Drawing on our observations, we could find some functions which connect participants’ daily lives and festivals: continuous partnership with stakeholders and displaying social capital. In the fundraising process, organizers tried to raise funds from their business partners, neighbors and other persons. It reflects the power, human capital and influence of the organizers. Moreover, such factors are highly visible for other citizens via flyers because they can check the list of supporting partners every year. Through fundraising, the power of the organizers is compared and reviewed by not only the festival staff, but also local residents, among others. As the result of analysis for fundraising process, this research elucidated that both the festival itself and daily work and life constructed the festival with the social capital owned by organizers.