Global COE Program - Kyoto University - In Search of Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa

 Members of this project are drawn primarily from two strands of research activities, area studies and humanosphere studies.

 Kyoto University enjoys a long tradition of area studies, and has four institutions, namely the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, the Center for African Area Studies and the Center for Integrated Area Studies. Among them about 60 faculty members, 30 postdoctoral fellows and 150 graduate students are engaged in a wide range of Asian and African area studies. One of the outstanding characteristics of area studies at Kyoto University is the integration of natural and social sciences and humanities. One third of the faculty members majored in natural science such as agricultural and medical sciences in their education while another third in social science such as economics and political science. The remaining one third specialized in humanities such as history and anthropology. We have maintained this combination since the start of area studies in Kyoto more than 40 years ago, and have gained a reputation by creating a new interdisciplinary research field centering on ecology, natural resource management and history. We have established strong academic networks with Asian and African research and education institutions and scholars through joint research projects and exchange of researchers (more than 200 scholars made mid- to long-term visits to Kyoto from Asian and African countries during the last thirty years). Our collection of vernacular language books and materials, particularly of Thai and Indonesian (more than 20,000 books each), and various kinds of maps (more than 30,000 sheets mainly of Southeast Asia) are widely regarded as a world-class collection.

 Major outcomes of area studies can be broadly classified into two types, local society studies and trans-regional studies. The former is based on long-term fieldwork, participatory observation of local society and conversation with local people, with the disciplinary background of agronomy, ecology, anthropology and medicine. Their approach is distinctively interdisciplinary. They have focused on interactions between human and nature, indigenous knowledge and technology of local people, and the transformation of local society under globalization. One of these studies, Rural Industrialization in Indonesia: A Case Study of Community Based-Weaving Industry in West Java, received the Award for Promotion of Studies on Developing Countries in 2000, and Ecological Destruction, Health, and Development: Advancing Asian Paradigms received the Gold Medal in Science, Publication Award, Asia and Pacific Press Association, in 2005.

 Major research topics of global history and trans-regional studies are the conceptualization of local and regional culture, society and development, with the background of political science, economics and history, and the examination of “Asia” and “Africa” as a region from the viewpoint of the developmental path, the formation of nation states, and the diversity of religion, society and culture. Their approach is cross-regional and comparative, and they often take a long-term view. The Sea-borne Empire and the Making of a Region in Asia (Umi no Teikoku: Ajia o Dou Kangaeruka) received Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Memorial Award in 2000, and a series of studies on Islamic politics and the Middle East received The Daido Life Foundation Award for the Promotion of Area Studies in 2005. These interdisciplinary and multi-layered understanding of the “area” provides an important intellectual basis on which to create the sustainable humanosphere paradigm.

 Humanosphere studies is a relatively recent and exciting development at Kyoto University. We have specialists of wood science, biomass conversion, atmosphere and space technology, with the background of forest science, infrastructure engineering and atmospheric engineering. They are committed to the study of Asia and Africa with a view to the application of their knowledge. The Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, established in 2003 and consisting of 40 faculty members, 40 postdoctoral fellows and 50 graduate students, initiated 168 joint research projects, provided more than 400 lectures and produced more than 260 academic papers (2005) in the fields of: a) material and energy flows at community, regional and global levels, b) innovation of material and energy use technology, and c) development of resource-recycling and environment conservation systems. The Institute has various oversea stations including wood study center, equatorial atmosphere radar and large-scale tree plantation plots mainly in the equatorial zones of Southeast Asia. One of the members was appointed as a fellow of International Academy of Wood Science in 1996 for his outstanding contribution to wood material recycling study, and a series of study on geo-space environment simulator received the Commendation by the Minister of State for Science and Technology, the Government of Japan, in 2006. These scientific outcomes and technology-oriented studies provide strong tools for designing the sustainable humanosphere paradigm.

 We have already started the integration of area studies and humanosphere studies in Indonesia where both groups have a long experience of research, and jointly organized an international seminar on “Science for Sustainable Humanosphere: Toward the Harmonization of Economy and Ecology” at Cibinong, Indonesia, in 2006. This accelerated the dialogue and cooperation between scholars of wood science and local society and provided a basis for designing this project.