International Program of Collaborative Research, CSEAS

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Tropical Commodity Chains: Toward the Creation of Global Multidisciplinary Studies
Project Leader: SODA, Ryoji, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Osaka City University
（Term：2011 - 2012）

• Outline of Joint Research
• Purpose of Joint Research
• Outline of Result

• Joint Seminars in 2011 Fiscal Year

Outline of Joint Research

This study examines the interrelationships between human and equatorial high-biomass environment, by analyzing biological resources that generate commodity chains at local/regional/global levels. Project members with different academic backgrounds will accumulate case studies on the flows of high-biomass products such as timber, mammal meat, bird’s nest, rattan, gutta-percha, rubber, oil palm, and acacia, each of which will make clear equatorial resource utilization and its commoditization. Integrating these case studies, we will try to create a new multi-scale area studies methodology which deals with human-nature interactions.

Purpose of Joint Research

An inland market town in Borneo. Although selling wild animals is prohibited by the law, some kinds of meat are still locally-distributed.

Reloading of timber. Timber from Indonesian Borneo is temporarily deposited in borderland log ponds to be 'exported' to Malaysia, and farther to Japan and other countries.

　 The purpose of this study is to construct new multidisciplinary global area studies by examining the process of equatorial biomass application from production to consumption at various spatiotemporal scales. Instead of conventional studies that focused on commodity chains from macro perspectives, our study is more multidimensional including perspectives of disturbance ecology, lifecycle assessment, anthropology, and area studies, in order to make clear the interactions between people and high-biomass environment in tropical regions.

　In this study, each member conducts case studies to analyze the commoditization of high-biomass generated products, setting up effective units of spatiotemporal scales based on the method of each academic discipline. Then accumulated case studies will be theoretically integrated by using methodologies employed in geography and historical science that may articulate studies with different time/spatial scales. This will be an experimental attempt at creating a new type of integration between the humanities and science.

　Looking at the flow mechanisms of tropical high-biomass products and inter-regional relationships through commodity chains, we will try to deconstruct conventional area studies which are bound to a specific research site and to present a new model of ‘interdisciplinary and trans-regional’ area studies with the equatorial perspectives.

Outline of Result

We held two research seminars in this fiscal year. At the first seminar, all of the members presented papers. Soda and Endo presented theoretical frameworks concerning the retailing of commodities from tropical countries to other regions. Other members (Ishikawa, Fujita, Sadamichi, Ubukata, Samejima) reported case studies from each disciplinary perspective. At the second seminar, we invited 2 guest speakers. Kanazawa (Shinsyu Univ.) talked on the flows of eaglewood produced in the jungle, and Araki (Yamaguchi Univ.) introduced new approaches such as food system, commodity chain, value chain, etc. from geographical perspective. They also gave us beneficial comments and advices in concrete to our research project.

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