Research & Staff

Program of Society & Humanity

Assoc. Prof. SHIMIZU Ryo
Urban and Rural Sociology, Environmental Sociology


This course will specialize in regional and community studies, especially from the aspect of researches into community plannning and environmental issues. I have carried out researches into some cases: a community planning of revival from Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake damage, a city planning with resident participation, some architectural disputes in the city, a fishermen’s struugle against reclamation project in Isahaya Bay area, some green activities by citizens, a local residents’ campaign against noise of Kyushu-Shinkansen, etc. My method of research is focusing on some actual social problem, taking a survey (fieldwork) of it, and analyzing it from the viewpoint of sociology. I have a aim at educating students to feel interest in a actual social problem, recognize it from the standpoint of the field, and do their best to find a solution.

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Assoc. Prof. FUKUNAGA Mayumi



Our research interests focus on the analysis of environmental values and social norms in order to discern causal and reciprocal relationships between human communities and nature. We examine these interactions within the richness and diversity of human existence, engaging what social systems have contributed and may contribute to compatibility between human communities and nature, and how they have contributed. In seeking any solution to improving human-nature relations and avoiding the trap of relativism, we need to share social contexts, networks and practices so that we can produce an ethic or social norms which functions for building our sustainable future, with reciprocation between the fields and theories. Research topics include watershed ethic and resource management, environmental justice, political control of passion and interests in resource management, social memory of pollution, polyphony in contested narration, oral history research methods, socio-economic and socio-environmental development, and environmental history.