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.
(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)
抄録全体を表示