The Role of Identity in Community Activities of Marginal Rural Areas

Abstract

Identity as a governance and coordination mechanism plays an important role in placemaking. It empowers community movements to build up a common space worthwhile to live in with pride and strengthen the attachment to their place. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between identity and neighborhood-based (or community-based) activism through the covariance structure analysis. The analysis is based on a survey of community activities in Nichinan, a town which is an example of a typical depopulating rural area in Japan. To answer the questions of how and why identity motivates community activism, some literature reviews were conducted on identity to mobilize collective action and several cases of having implemented a focus on regional identity especially in depopulating hilly and mountainous areas in Japan. The validity of the covariance structure analysis on identity and community activities was confirmed and the results showed that identity has a significant relationship with community activities. Finally, a policy to motivate identities which could foster marginal area development is proposed.