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October Geoffrey M. White, White

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Edward Relph,, Place and Placelessness, Pion limited

October Geoffrey M. White,, National subjects September and Pearl Harbor, American Ethnologist, HP H

A new basin management and responsibility of the persons concerned Consensus building in post-public works ABSTRACT Graduate School of sociology and social work Kwansei Gakuin University Uegaharabancho, Nishinomiya city, Hyogo,, JAPAN The purpose of this paper is to point out some problems in the consensus building for post-public works by explaining why the people who are concerned with the project for years support the construction of a dam, and to suggest some improvements for the future. Since, there has been a growing tendency to rethink public enterprises. Especially in the policies concerning rivers, new attempts such as those by The Yodo River basin committee have been made. These tendencies are welcomed for their possibility of including the people, hitherto the mere recipients of governmental laws, in the process of policy making. However, while discussions on reevaluating the construction of dams has received wide public recognition, people who before had opposed the construction of the dams are now wanting it constructed. My findings through interviews with these people reveal a situation of deadlock in consensus building due to the power of the government and because the people most concerned have refrained from speaking up in order to take up past responsibilities. Conventional research has shown the process of local conflicts and the development of a problem from its first occurrence until it is solved, through theories of citizen participation, etc. However, these theories can only describe the changes over time, and it has not been possible to grasp the meaning of time as it is experienced by the people. Furthermore, in consensus building, we could probably also say that past experiences and people s sufferings and responsibilities have largely been ignored. There are areas where the residents after a difficult process of consensus building agreed to the government s plans for the construction of a dam several decades ago for reasons of public good. However, the public work was not executed and now they are under pressure to agree to stop it out of considerations for environmental protection. It is necessary to build a consensus that is also based on past responsibilities, history and memories and not only on a consensus depending on the situation, that answers to the public change. The responsibility comes out thorough reconstructing some experiences, memories and situations of the people who move to other places. That is to say, the most important point is including memory, process and the responsibility of the person concerned in consensus building. Key Words: Problem of public enterprise, river basin, the person concerned, responsibility