Local community – its functions for human life and changes in modern world

For hundreds of years, local communities have been an essential part of everyday life for human beings. Everyone belongs to a certain local community, and the community provides her/him with necessary basis for survival, production, re-production, and identity. However, as modernization prevails everywhere in the world, most of traditional local communities are facing rapid changes both in internally and externally. Even though local communities are still a core of life for many rural people, it is not easy for many local communities to maintain traditional collective activities, human relationship, norms and regulations.

If a development practitioner wants to facilitate community-based development activities, he/she must have clear understandings about basics of local community and recent changes it faces because of rapid modernization of the whole world. In this article, it is expected to provide you with some perspectives on local communities based on the history and experience of Japanese local communities.

Three functions of community

1) Between Human and Nature

From the very beginning, human beings have been utilizing natural resources for their survival. All kinds of food materials come from natural resources such as forests, grass lands, agriculture fields, rivers, and the sea. Water, an essential material for both human lives and agriculture production, is also a product of nature starting from rain fall, stored in forest and soils, and flowing through streams and rivers. Of course, besides foodstuff, people also need natural resources for their clothes and shelters. In other words, human beings totally depend on natural resources for their livelihood and production.

One of the important functions of local community is to manage these natural resources collectively in a sustainable way. If any kind of natural resources is over-exploited beyond the carrying capacity of the nature, that resource will be exhausted, and the livelihood of the people depending on that natural resource will be threatened as a result. In order to avoid such situation, and to be able to utilize natural resources sustainably, human beings have to construct systems of natural resource management among them. This is one of the reasons why human beings have to live together, interact together, and formulate “local community”.

In Japan, many communities have been maintaining “Iriai” system as a collective natural resource management system. Iriai is generally defined as “a system or organization where the local residents of a certain area (usually a community or several communities) jointly utilize and manage mountains, rivers and land.” Concrete rules and practices of iriai vary from place to place, and change from time to time, yet the unique characteristics of iriai practices are 1) Consensus by all, 2) Right of common property for the people living in a community, and 3) Equal access, equal responsibility among it.

Based on this iriai system described above, many community people in Japan have been maintaining forest and other natural resources vital for their livelihood collectively in a sustainable way.

There are rich natural resources in the rural area of Japan
(Kumamoto prefecture, Japan)

2) Between Human and Human

It can not be denied that every human being requires other’s help for his/her daily life. You can easily imagine that if you can not expect other people’s help except for your own family members, how your everyday life might be very difficult to live. You need others’ help for repairing roof materials, planting and harvesting agricultural products in a short period, or at a time of marriage or funeral ceremonies, or when you have to work outside without no other family members who take care of your children .

In Japan, there is a system called “Yui” that facilitate mutual help among community members. In many traditional communities, there are small groups consisting of neighboring families (yui) that provide mutual help for farm work that requires intensive input of labors such as planting and harvesting. There are also yui for repairing houses especially thatched roofs, and yui for funerals. Usually in those yui practices, there is no exchange of money between those who receive and those who provide helps. It is basically reciprocity relations among community members.

There is another practice of mutual help in traditional communities of Japan, called “Kou”. Kou is a kind of self-help groups where community people gather for particular objectives such as religious, financial, or entertainment matters. There are kous mainly for economic activities such as “tanomoshi-kou” that is one of good examples of ROSCA (Rotated Savings and Credit Association).

By observing such practices of mutual help in the traditional communities of Japan, we can conclude that human beings require communities that provide mutual help relations among members for their everyday life, production, and re-production.

3) Between Human and God(s) or Between Generations

Apart from materialistic point of view, communities have been providing most of human beings with mental or psychological security for them. Sense of belongings, or feeling of “being at home” is important for most of us to maintain own identities. This sense of belongings is created through the fact that the members of a community share the same history, tradition, culture, same natural resources, and same destiny. They feel that they are not alone, connected with not only each others, but with super-natural, spirits, or the god(s). They also think that their community has been continuing from generation to generation, thus they feel strong ties with their ancestors and descendants. Even the people living in modern cities feel that they belong to original local communities where they are from, and in long holidays, we observe that millions of city dwellers rush to their home villages or towns in many countries.

In Japan, “Matsuri” (festival) of “Uji-gami-sama” (locally believed guardian deity) is one of the important annual events for traditional communities. There are various ceremonies and rituals for praising their Uji-gami that have to be followed by the community members, and every part of community has particular role to play in the festival. By participating in the matsuri, community members can strengthen sense of belongings, and also feel strong tie with the nature, history, ancestors, and supernatural in their community.

Community people hold “Matsuri” (Shiga prefecture, Japan)

Rules and regulations shared and followed

Those three functions of community described above require specific rules and regulations that are commonly accepted and followed by the community members. In the case of Iriai forests in Japan, there are various kinds of rules in each community to control usage of forest so that the natural resources in the forest are maintained in a sustainable way.

When community members discuss about any decision regarding rules or regulations of the community, there should be specific decision making system for each community. In Japan, “Yoriai” is a common practice of decision making system in traditional communities. Usually, all the heads of households in the community attend a yoriai meeting, and the decision of yoriai meeting is taken unanimously, not by majority vote. It is very important that all the participants share experiences and views among each others, and finally reach accommodation based on all the participants’ views and opinions. After the decision of yoriai meeting, all the members are expected to follow the rules or regulations, and there is also a system of sanctions or penalties for those who do not obey them.

The above described functions of communities might be specific characteristic of Japan based on particular historical and cultural background. There must be many variations of real communities in terms of their functions and internal systems reflecting various socio-economic and cultural background of each community. However, as we see the very nature of human beings, it is inevitable that we require any kinds of “groups of people” that manage relations between human and nature, human and human, and human and the supernatural. And for a long time, local communities have been playing much important role for such functions, and therefore they have maintained own system of decision making.

Decline of local community

However, in many countries including Japan, functions of local communities described above have already declined as modernization started and has taken deep root in the society. Even in the developing countries, ties of traditional communities have started to weaken as western life style and urbanization took place. Why local communities decline as a society is modernized? If we look into the world history, we can find two major factors that characterize progress of modernization; nation state and capitalistic market economy.

1) Nation State to become absolute power to manage resources

Modern state is characterized to have centralized government that holds absolute power to control over resources within its territory. In Japan, when “Meiji” government took over from feudal “Edo” shogun government in the late 19th Century, it introduced a policy to abolish iriai system, and tried to convert community-owned forests to be national properties or private ones. Main objective for the policy was to ensure taxation from land owners, but it also aimed at utilizing natural resources in the country much more effectively in order to achieve rapid economic development. Some of the forests that had become national properties were utilized for mining or manufacturing factories. Such practices of nation states to nationalize and commercialize community properties still occur in many of the developing countries.

Nation states also created “citizens” who hold identity to the nation. In order to integrate all the areas within the territory at early times, and then to compete with other nation states especially at the era of imperialism, it required its citizens to feel strong identity to the nation. Later on, when democracy became common value for the nation states, the governments (both central and local) have become entities that hold sole responsibilities to protect their citizens and to provide necessary services to them.

All those things above have influenced functions of local communities. They lost rights to manage various natural resources originally owned and controlled by the communities, and as a result, collective actions in the communities based on own decision making system have also declined. Creation of national citizens also influenced sense of belongings of the community people who now feel more identity to broader entities such as nation, ethnicity, or even “global citizens”. And finally, introduction of “welfare state” that provides necessary services to its citizens has weakened functions of mutual help in the local communities.

2) Market Economy to generate “individuals based on economic value”

Another driving force of modernization, capitalist market economy, has also given crucial influence on the functions of local communities. It requires a system of “absolute right of property” that enables free economic interaction among the individuals. Communal lands were converted into private individual properties so that people can easily sell and buy in order to gain economic benefit. Again, control over common property resources by local communities was demolished and people became more and more individualistic to pursue economic gain. Community people who sought cash income migrated into the cities and became labor force for industries, and as a result, community ties and the system of mutual help were destroyed.

In addition to those physical impacts on community functions, penetration of market economy gave deep influence on the values of traditional local communities. In the world of market economy, everything is measured by economic rationality. It does not give value on voluntary actions if they do not produce immediate economic benefit. “Time is money” has become important motto for most of “modernized” citizens. Mutual help, or reciprocity relations among community members are considered not to be economically rational. People have become much busy in pursuing individual economic benefit rather than giving time for “un-productive” or “non-profitable” activities of local communities.

Modernization has deep root in the society ( Tokyo, Japan)

Yet, we need something similar to communities

Thus, as nation state and capitalist market economy are the two key driving forces for modern world, we have to admit that the decline of local community is inevitable. In the modernized globalization era, this is a common phenomenon that is observed in almost all the places in the world. However, is there nothing remains for local communities to play any role or function in the modern or post-modern world of globalization?

The answer may be “no”, if you look into the present situation of Japanese society. There are many problems faced by Japanese people, such as rapid aging society with fewer children, depopulation in the rural area and too individualistic over-populated urban area, increasing number of economically poor households, or violent crimes both in urban and rural areas. In general, it becomes obvious that the government of Japan (central and local) can not provide all the necessary public services to the people because of financial deficit and limitation of their resources. On the other hand, private sector can not cover all the necessity of the people because it has to compete in the global market to gain profit. It is because of such limitation of both public and private sectors to provide sufficient services that the non-profit and non-government organizations (NPOs and NGOs) are increasingly playing important roles for tackling various problems in Japan.

Yes, other than nation state and market economy, we need something similar to the traditional local communities that are able to manage common property resources, to facilitate mutual help, and to give us sense of belongings. It can be a revival or re-construction of local communities, or it can also be new types of communities, such as NPOs now being much active in Japan.

Local community in Indonesia

By M. Nagahata (i-i-network)

Tips for conducting training workshop on “what is community?”

Among your colleagues, counterparts, or community people, there may be a chance to have a training workshop for sharing viewpoints and finding out various aspects of “local community” described in the previous pages. The followings are some tips for conducting workshop on “what is community”.

Exercise 1: “Collective Actions of a community”

Question & Instruction:

What are the actions / activities / events implemented by community members collectively? List up at least 30 items, and categorize them.

Note:

“Collectively” means “by any kind of groups of community members” “by more than two persons”. The collective actions may be implemented by particular group of community people (women, children, youth, particular occupational group, etc.), and they may be done regularly (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) or occasionally.

Purpose of the exercise:

To review functions of local communities, to confirm importance of collective actions for the life of human beings, and to find initiatives of local communities taken by themselves

Exercise 2: “CHANGE in a community”

Question & Instruction:

What are the things (visible or invisible) that disappeared within recent 30 – 40 years in your community? What are the things that have emerged within recent 30 – 40 years in your community? List up at least 30 items per each, and think about “positive” or “negative” impacts on your community.

Note:

“Things (visible or invisible)” include any kinds of concrete things such as building, equipments, products, infrastructure, etc. or any kinds of abstract things such as systems, institutions, policies, actions of human beings, way of life, way of thinking, etc.

Purpose of the exercise:

To review recent changes of local communities, to link those changes with macro socio-economic situation (modernization & globalization), and to check the impacts of modernization / globalization to local communities

Exercise 3: “Resources of a community”

Question & Instruction:

Divided into pairs, each participant is asked to find out existing local resources in the local community that your partner participant belongs to. Please ask what there are in his/her community. Do not simply ask “what are the resources in your community”. Try to find out potential resources as many as possible.

Note:

Community members may not be aware of own potential resources in their community. Try to explore the facts that exist in the community. In the interview, it is also effective if you admire or respect what there are in your partners community.

Purpose of the exercise:

To become aware of existing potential resources in local communities and to realize importance of finding out and utilizing those resources

M. Nagahata (i-i-network)

Learning from an urban community – training report from Heian-cho

On Wednesday July 9, five officials of local government in Democratic Republic of Congo visited a small urban community in Yokohama city, Kanagawa Prefecture. They came to Japan to participate in JICA Tokyo training course “Promotion of Urban Community Development in the DR Congo”. The training course aims at providing opportunities for the participants to acquire necessary knowledge and skills to promote participatory sustainable community development through learning from Japanese experience. In order to study community-based voluntary activities in urban area and their relationship with local government, a field visit to an urban community where residents are actively involved in various development activities was arranged, and “Heian-cho chokai” was selected to be visited as a field work.

What is Heian-cho community

Heian-cho is a residential area inside Yokohama city (one of the largest port cities in Japan) with total 3,500 households living near “Tsurumi-ichiba” station of Keikyu railway. The residents can reach Tokyo city center within 40 minutes if they take Keikyu line, and it takes only 16 minutes ride on a train to arrive at Yokohama station where you can find variety of shopping and amusement facilities. Recently, several high-rise apartment buildings were constructed, so the number of younger families and unmarried people increased in the area, whereas among the old residents there increased aged population as their sons and daughters had grown up and live separately outside the area. In short, Heian-cho is one of the ordinary residential towns around Tokyo with a mixture of new young comers and old residents of aged families.

In Japan, at most of residential areas, neighborhood associations (chonai-kai, chokai, or jichi-kai in Japanese words) are organized among the residents. The neighborhood associations in Japan are basically voluntary organizations spontaneously established by the residents to implement community activities such as disaster preparedness, crime prevention, welfare activities, and mutual friendship events. Throughout Japan, there said to be around three hundred thousand neighborhood associations. Some of them are active, but others are not so. Especially in the city area such as Yokohama or Tokyo, as most of the residents are so busy in their own business or family matters, and human relationship among the community members become much weakened as a result, many neighborhood associations can not attract most of their residents to the activities, and have become less active.

However, it is not the case of Heian-cho chokai. The association is still much active to implement various social activities and many residents participate actively in those activities and events. It has 2,800 households as members, and it is divided into eight issue-wise divisions and 15 area-wise sections.

Community center in Heian-cho

What are observed at Heian-cho

Firstly, the training participants from DR Congo were welcomed by children and their mothers who gathered at a community center in Heian-cho. They came to the facility several times in a month to participate in various games, exercises, and plays organized by volunteer instructors. This “Heian Kids Room” is organized by the Chokai aiming at providing opportunities for young mothers and children to have interactions among each others. In the busy urban life, the mothers (housewives) have not enough chance to meet their neighbors and to talk each other.

Volunteer instructor plays a puppet show for children

Then, the participants observed lunch delivery activity of “Heian-cho Fukushi Sanjokai” (Welfare Supporting Association). This program is designed to provide healthy lunch for elderly residents who live alone in the community. All the staff involved in cooking and delivering lunch box are volunteers from the community. The participants observed how they cooked lunch boxes and deliver them to each elderly resident by motorbike. This activity is implemented once a week, and it gives good opportunity for the community people to meet elderly residents who live alone and have little chance to interact with the other community members.

Volunteers make the lunch boxes

In addition to those activities, the training participants also observed “patrolling activity” for school children also organized by the Heian-cho Chokai (neighborhood association). When classes of a primary school in the community finish in the afternoon, volunteers from the community gathered at several places near the school such as the school gates and crossings. The volunteers watched the school children coming back home, and they often talked with the children. This activity is primarily aimed at protecting school children from traffic accidents or violent crimes, but at the same time, it creates good chance for the community members to interact with the children.

Training participants observe patrolling activity for school children

After observing various activities of the Chokai, a leader of the association, Mr. H.Kasai delivered a lecture on the background and strategy of the association. According to Mr. Kasai, the ultimate goal of various activities of Chokai is to create and maintain a community living with safe environment without worries. The activities of association can be categorized as welfare for the elderly, services for the children and parents, security, disaster preparedness, cultural and sports events, protecting environment, and mutual helping activities among youth, women, and elderly people.

Mr. Kasai emphasized importance of voluntary actions. All the above activities of the community were initiated by the community members themselves. The community people who gathered in the association discussed among them and found out what was necessary for them to protect and improve their everyday life. Mr. Kasai facilitated the process and asked the other community members to take responsibility for each activity initiated and planned by the members.

Of course, some of the activities such as lunch delivery, disaster preparedness, and security (crime prevention) are supported and subsidized by local administration. The Yokohama city government provides subsidy and grant to such community activities. However, what Mr. Kasai emphasized is that it is the Heian-cho community itself that initiated the activities and asked support to the local administration, and he also strongly claimed that the local government should not ask the community associations to help its projects, instead, the local government should help the projects created by community associations.

What found and learned at Heian-cho

The training participants from DR Congo listed up what they found interesting in Heiancho community. The items are;

-There is a place for children’s recreation, and the children who visited there are very active and relaxed.

-In the lunch box delivered to elderly residents by the association, there was a message sheet from the other residents. It is a good tool for communication.

-During the World War II, the community was totally destroyed by bombing, but the residents and local administration worked together to recover and re-construct.

-Various activities implemented by Chokai provide important opportunities for the residents to communicate each other.

-There is a network among stakeholders to protect children from crimes and accidents.

-Voluntary spirits among the community members are very strong.

-The residents are conscious about importance of reducing and recycling garbages.

-There is a good coordination and collaboration between local community and local administration.

Then, the participants tried to draw out learning from which they will be able to utilize in their own activities at home.

-In Congo, there are community groups organized by ordinary people. They implement activities based on subsidy and donation. The problem is that if their funding source stops support, most of their activities can also stop. It is very important that community-based organizations or groups should mobilize existing local resources including human volunteer powers.

-By observing various activities of Heian-cho Chokai, a question comes into my mind. “What are the roles of local government?” In Heian-cho, some of the activities that should be managed by local administration are also implemented by the community people (Chokai). We need to think about what should be planned and implemented by local government and what should be planned and implemented by local communities.

Training participants listed up what they found interesting in Heian-cho community

Message from Mr. Kasai, a leader of Heian-cho community

As a leader of community association, I strongly feel that only a one leader can not achieve even a single activity for the community. Community can grow gradually as if a tree accumulates annual ring. You should not expect an immediate instant success. You observed community members who talked with an old woman who received lunch delivery, or who exchanged greetings with children coming back from school. It is such a small effort to accumulate human interactions in everyday life that will lead to achieving better community. There is a flower bed in a park of this community. Some volunteers maintain the flower bed regularly, and those volunteers are called “Hanasukikai”. The word “Hanasukikai” has two meanings, “we love flowers” and “opportunity to talk together”. We hope that the community members see beautiful flowers, exchange greetings, and talk each other, and as a result, our community tie becomes much stronger. In your communities in Congo, if local people communicate each other more actively through community activities, I believe that your communities will also become stronger.

Mr.Kasai explain about a community notice board