This study proposes a new methodology in anthropological practice, to be described as the "global needs-sharing approach between the parties concerned" (henceforth "the approach"). It connects multiple remote points on earth without depending on the asymmetrical dichotomy between the investigator and informant, the donor and recipient, and so forth. The author explores the possibilities and potential of the methodology by examining the case of the project-ethnography known as the "e-satoyama project" (or simply "esp"), implemented from 2015 among undergraduate students in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan and Narok County in Kenya. The project centered on the keyword satoyama, a Japanese term for "the area in which humans and nature interact."
First, the author positions the approach with respect to preceding academic arguments in related disciplines on fieldwork and ethnography. He conflates four arguments on ethnographic methods through a critical examination of
the following: (1) the critique of ethnography after the so-called "writing culture shock," (2) the tōjisha (Japanese for "the parties concerned") research movement in Japanese sociology and disability studies, (3) ulti-sited ethnography, and (4) participatory development studies. Second, the author illustrates the methodology through the e-satoyama project. Finally, the traits of the methodology are presented through reflections on the activities carried
out in the project over the last four years.
The outcome of the project has been published in the form of sightseeing maps and field guidebooks on wild animals, both in printed and online formats, to advocate the needs shared with the local people. The publication, which can be considered an "ethnographic leaflet," is designed as a significant product within a certain context relevant to the local communities, and is not intended to be a universal academic ethnography. Therefore, the ethnographic leaflet is not merely a leaflet version of the academic ethnography, but a form of "situated product" sharing the same meaning as "situated learning."
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