Creating a Community of Resilience: New Meanings of Technologies for Greater Well-Being in a Depopulated Town

Authors

  • Nanami Suzuki National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2012.58

Keywords:

aging, depopulation, work, technology, community, environment, Kamikatsu, Japan

Abstract

This article reflects upon the process of care in a depopulated town that is progressively graying. This has led to a consciousness of older adult’s well-being and has led to the creation of living places for people from diverse cultural backgrounds and multiple generations. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in this town, this article traces the activities of persons searching for ways to promote a new industry in a manner that is appropriate to the local environment and that also matches the needs of older adults, aiming to help them continue to live in the community. It explores the kind of world discovered by those older adults who have continued to work by taking advantage of both their own resources and those of the community, and looks at how creative ways of supporting those efforts have affected the lifestyle of younger generations as well as the very nature of the town. It also explores the meaning of the development of technologies as an element that makes up the time and space in which people gather and considers the ways the community expresses and shares wisdom

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Published

2012-09-01

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 3 (2012): Special Issue on Anthropology and Aging in East Asia II

Section

Articles

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