Life environmentalism, which emerged in the 1980s in Japan, is a set of theories and policy approaches to resolve local environmental problems. Professor Daisaku Yamamoto has been thinking about life-environmentalism (seikatsu kankyo shugi 生活環境主義) for some years now — this thought has informed lectures and a class, Geography 315: Sustainable Livelihoods in Asia (now ASIA/GEOG315 Deep Asia).
It has also resulted in a newly published book, Everyday Life-Environmentalism: Community Sustainability and Resilience in Asia, co-edited by Professor Yamamoto and his colleague Hiroyuki Torigoe (Otemae University).
Not only is Professor Yamamoto’s work highlighted in this book, but it also includes the work of two recent graduates: a chapter co-authored by Sophia Ferrero ’23 and Keegan Kessler ’23, based upon research they conducted for their senior honors theses, for which Professor Yamamoto served as primary adviser.
From the publisher’s site:
This book provides one of the first systematic introductions to the Japanese concept of life-environmentalism, Seikatsu-Kankyo Shugi. This concept emerged in the 1980s as a shared research framework among Japanese social scientists studying the adverse consequences of postwar industrialization on everyday life in communities. Life-environmentalism offers a lens through which the agency of small communities in sustaining their everyday life and living environment can be understood. The book provides an overview of this approach, including intellectual backgrounds and foundational concepts, along with a variety of empirical case studies that examine environmental and sustainability issues in Japan and other parts of Asia. It also includes critical reflections on the approach in light of contemporary sustainability challenges. The empirical topics covered in the book include local community responses to development projects, resource governance, disaster response and recovery, and historical environmental preservation.