Sharing expenses by the residents of localities where public flood control works are to be undertaken is indispensable for the materialization of flood control works of medium and small-sized rivers in modern times. Flood prevention cooperatives organized by inhabitants in frequently-inundated areas have played an important role in bearing the expenses allotted to localities. But some of the cooperatives could not bear their share of the expenses and flood control work failed consequently.
The author analyzed the causes of failure of a flood prevention cooperative in sharing expenses and clarified the problems of local share in expenses taking the case of the Kokufu River Flood Prevention Cooperative on Sado Island.
The results are as follows: The most decisive reason that the Kokufu River Flood Prevention Cooperative could not bear its allotment is the impossibility of payment by the inhabitants of the upper basin, because extremely high rates of allotment in the upper basin were decided without adjusting the conflict between upper basin residents and lower basin residents. Hence prefectural river improvement work of the Kokufu River was halfed.
Futhermore the following situation contributed to default in payment. In the Kokufu River basin advanced mining techniques were applied to flood control works in the Edo Period, and these works were carried out several times in connection with the prosperity and decline of the Sado Gold Mine. Some rational features in the works, imposition and repayment system, and so on can be seen. But after the Meiji Restoration small landownership in the island society prescribed repayment of much of the expenses of river improvement, and work was stopped.
Therefore consideration must be given to relative flood damage between the upper basin and lower basin so as not to produce outstanding inequality between the two districts when making allotment rates.
Generally, in frequently-inundated areas, we can see conflict between the uper basin and lower basin. But in that case flood control work cannot be realized without adjustment of advantages and disadvantages between the two districts. Also realization of flood control work requires the intervention of the prefectural goverment with large funds.

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In Japan, studies on “community” and the reality of everyday life in the city have been both assumed and largely ignored by geographers. This study, in exploring the role of various social bonds within a local area and the influence of some institutions on its bonds, attempts to clarify some aspects of “community” and its transformation in the city. Though “community” is a highly ambiguous notion, it could be defined as the complete range of relationships an individual is led to establish with other peoples within definite place and that members of it conform to certain unwritten rules or informal norms which can't be applied to outsiders.
The research field for this study is Hakata, Fukuoka City, from the 1910's to the 1930's. In Hakata, the “Hakata Yamakasa” has long been held and is one of the most famous festivals in Japan.
The main results of this study are summarised as follows:
1) There is a mutually supportive role of neighbors materially and emotionally. The inhabitants conform to informal norms, for example, the duty of mutual aids at ceramonial occasions and payment of money used for local community's everyday expenses.
In consumption, the inhabitants buy daily necessfties mainly through pedlars and retailers who depend on face-to-face local interaction. It seems that this mode of buying has a potential role in the reinforcement of connection within the neighborhood.
Though it is clear that the residents keep close contact with each other, we must pay attention to the difference of these interactions according to gender, age, occupation, socio-economic status and so forth.
2) As at “Yamakasa” the various and heterogeneous residents are integrated together in the internal system, they recognize each other as members of the local community and preserve identity and loyaly to their own community through various observances. This identity is necessary for the formation and maintenance of community. The division between the internal system and the external one is kept strictly during the festival. This is, however, not absolute and consistent, but relative and contingent. The nature of each grovp is context-bounded and contingent on two relationships, both intragroup-relation and intergroup-relation. The author emphasizes the contingency of these relationships and the relationship with externalities at various levels.
3) In the process of modernization and urbanization, the intervention of administration and capital to the local community is thorugh the labor process, consumption and relief of the poor, etc. Although from the standpoint of inhabitants, local community forms an ‘absolute territory’ which can be a place of identity, from the standpoint of capital, it is a ‘relative territory’ and an obstacle to capital interests occasionally. The new systems gradually include or substitute for the existing institutions and social order or norms which depend on mutuality within the local community. In short, these institutions make individuals subject to control and the accumulation of capital. It seems, however, that there are cases where through the struggle around these institutions a different consciousness from the old one is generated.

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In dieser Abhandlung wurden hinsichtlich des Sozialbracheproblems in den schweizerischen Alpen folgende Punkte klargestellt.
(1) Das Sozialbracheproblem in Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Umwelt.
(2) Ursachen der Sozialbracheentstehung.
(3) Welche Bedeutung haben die Maßnahmen zur Linderung des Sozialbracheproblems.
Zum Zweck der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden obige Punkte durch Beispiele aus der Gemeinde St. Luc im Val d'Anniviers im Kanton Valais (Wallis) erläutert.
Die Begriffsbestimmung der Sozialbrache erfolgt durch den Ausdruck landwirtschaftliche Flächen. deren Landwirtschaftsbetriebe durch sozio-ökonomischen Veränderungen lahmgelegt wurden.
(1) Das Sozialbracheproblem in Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Umwelt.
Die Zunahme der Sozialbrache rührt von einer ausgesprochen starken Abnahme der Zahl der Bauernhöfe, des Viehs und der Anbauflächen her, weshalb im Ergebnis die ganze Wirtschaftsbasis von St. Luc zu kränkeln begann.
Die Verschlechterung der Kulturlandschaft durch die Zunahme der Sozialbrache hat auch den Wert der Fremdenverkersressourcen stark vermindert.
Ausserdem kommt es durch das dürre Gras, das in der Sozialbrache nicht gemäht wird, zu Lawinen und Bränder, und diese fügen dem Wald, den Gebäuden, dem Vieh und dem Getreide usw. große Schäden zu.
(2) Ursachen der Sozialbracheentstehung.
Durch den starken industriellen Aufschwung nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg verstärkte sich die Mechanisierung der Landwirtschaft, und die Produktivität erhöhte sich. Aber es nahm auch zugleich der Unterschied der Produktivität zwischen dem Flachland mit guten Bodenbedingungen und dem entgegengesetzten Gebirgsland zu. Im Berggebiet, das auf der wirtschaftlichen Grundlage von Land-und Forstwirtschaft steht, setzte eine starke Bevölkerungsabnahme ein. Infolgedessen hat sich eine große Anzahl von Sozialbrachen im Berggebiet ergeben.
(3) Welche Bedeutung haben die Maßnahmen zur Linderung des Sozialbracheproblems.
Ab 1975 werden in der Sozialbrache der Gemeinde St. Luc viel FlachlandJungvieh aus den Kantonen Waadt und Fribourg im Sommer beweidet. Dieses Flachland-Jungvieh wird von Bauern in der Gemeinde St. Luc verwaltet und sie nehmen die Gebühren von den Flachlandbauern.
Derartige Maßnahmen gegen die Sozialbrache sind für die Schweiz, als Gebirgsland, das ja auch vom Fremdenverkehr lebt, in Hinsicht auf die Flächensicherung und einen wirksamen Schutz von Bodennutzung und Wohnambiente ausgesprochen bedeutsam.

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