International Program of Collaborative Research, CSEAS

Comparative Study of Rural Social Structure in Asia: Interplay between Community, State Authority and Development Policy
Project Leader: YANAGISAWA, Masayuki, Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University
（Term：2010 - 2011）

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

• Joint Seminars in 2010-2011 Fiscal Year

Outline of Joint Research

In order to compare the rural social structures in various parts of Asia, this project in the fiscal year of 2011 will focus on the following aspects,
1) human capital of local government,
2) amount of direct tax, taxable persons, and taxation formulas by local governments,
3) managing body of small scale infrastructure
4) social structure for informal monetary, and
5) informal monetary services
Through analyzing the points mentioned above, we will find region-specific features of rural social structure in Asia and their recent transformations.

Purpose of Joint Research

In the Red River Delta of Vietnam, villager's personal human-relationships are very important for forming the structure of a subsistence economy in the village, which is causing diversification of the village economy even on the same ecological conditions along the delta. The photo shows that Coc Thanh cooperative invited some staff from the central and regional research institutions as well as some traders to participate in a workshop on potato production for the village in May 2008.

Irrigation tank in south India. There is no water because it is the dry season.

Rural societies in various parts of Asia, based on their ‘proto types’ formulated in their long historical process, have recently experienced a large transformation through rapid economic development, urbanization and the progress of aging, and so forth. In East Asia, with their proto type of ‘peasant society’ (tight community formed by peasants) established in the pre-modern era, brought about hard-working habits among people and affected even the organizational structure of modern non-agricultural enterprises, and thus had decisive power to determine the identical historical development paths different from Western countries. In South Asia, the question of how the proto type of ‘job & entitlement distributional’ in rural society based on castes is transforming, and is now paid much attention in amidst rapid economic development and urbanization. In Southeast Asia where ‘open’ and ‘loosely structured’ rural societies were formed in small population situations, and are now slowly changing under decentralization policies and rural development policies in amidst of economic development and urbanization. This project will focus on the five aspects mentioned above as well as other specific topics in each region, and find region-specific features of rural social structure in Asia and their recent transformations.

Seminars in Fiscal 2010-2011

1. International Seminar on Rural Social Structure in Vietnam at Hanoi
2. This is an announcement of an International Seminar on "Structure and Dynamics of Village Community in Vietnam" at Hanoi in the coming January 2011, jointly organized by Hanoi Agricultural University, Collaborative Research on 'Comparative Study on Rural Social Structure in Asia' in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University (Leader: Dr. Masayuki Yanagisawa, Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University), and the Initiative 1 of Kyoto University G-COE Program 'In Search of Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa'.
3. Date & Time：January 6th (Thurs.), 2011
4. Place： Hanoi Paradise Hotel (Hanoi City, Vietnam)
5. Program：
   9:30-10:10　
6. 　Koichi Fujita (Kyoto University), “Rural Social Structure in Asia in Comparative Perspective”
   10:10-10:40　Discussions
   10:40-11:40
7. 　Yoshihiro Sakane (Hiroshima University), “Family and Kinship System in Vietnam”
   11:40-12:10 Discussions
   12:10-13:30 Lunch
   13:30-14:30　
8. 　Takashi Okae (Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan),
9. 　“Discussing Vietnamese Village Based on Yumio Sakurai’s Book ‘The Formation of Vietnamese Village' and others”
   14:30-15:30 Discussions
   15:30-16:00 Business Meeting
   Other participants:
10. 　Masato Hiwatari (Hokkaido University),
11. 　Kei Kajisa (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies),
12. 　Satoru Kobayashi　(Kyoto University),
13. 　Akihiko Ohno (Aoyama Gakuin University),
14. 　Sumiaki Iwamoto (Tokyo Agricultural University),
15. 　Tamae Sugihara (Tokyo Agricultural University), and Huu Khanh and other participants from Hanoi Agricultural University.
16. Contact：Koichi Fujita （CSEAS)

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