教授　新井 祥穂　　Sachiho W. ARAI　

　農業振興や農村開発は，現在もなお世界の各地で大きな意味や影響をもっています． しかし，その内実や目指すべき方向が，今日ほど厳しく問われる時代はありません．また農村をみれば，必ずしも農一辺倒ではない暮らしが，日本以外にも広がってきています．そのような中で，「誰が，どのように，地域において働き，生きていくのか」「農業に関わるならば，どのようなあり方か」をテーマとしています．そしてそれは，究極的には，「資本蓄積と，農業の関係」を問う作業であろうかと考えています．

　私はこれまで，国内農山村，中でも沖縄という亜熱帯島嶼地域の農業開発， 国内農村における水資源再編，インドネシアにおけるアブラヤシプランテーション農業や稲作農業，など，様々な現象を，フィールドワークをもとに取り上げてきました．いずれも，地域の生態環境と経済（資本）・社会環境の長期的な相互作用，その中に埋め込まれた，人の働き方と農業の動態であったかと思います．

　今後もこうした実証研究を積み重ねることで，今日の働き方，農業生産の担い手，彼らをとりまく，農業資源や金融，政策のあり方を論じていきたいと考えています． また，複雑な現象に切り込むための理論・視座として，マルクス経済学をベースに据えていきます．

これまでの業績，経歴等はこちら

大学院への進学を考えている方はこちら

Agricultural and rural development is still of great significance in many parts of the world today. However, there has never been a time when the direction of these issues should have been argued so lively but in turmoil as they are today. We can see that lifestyles that are not agriculturally centric are spreading in rural areas in close relationship with urban or capital. On that conditions, my research interest lies in the simple question -- “who works in the contemporary rural community and how?”,  “what kind of action they are involved in agriculture? ”. Ultimately, this interest leads me to the relationship between capitalistic accumulation and agriculture or rural areas.

I have conducted fieldwork on a variety of phenomena, including agricultural development in rural areas in Japan, particularly in the subtropical island region of Okinawa, the reorganization of water resources in rural areas in Japan, and oil palm plantation societies and rice farming in Indonesia. All of the focus points are on the long-term interaction between the ecological environment and the economic (capital) and social environment of the region, and the dynamics of human activity and agriculture embedded there.

Conducting empirical research in the future, I will explore "how people work today", "who are responsible for agricultural production", and "how agricultural resources should be managed and development policies should be implemented".  Marxian economics deem appropriate as a theoretical and conceptual basis for the analysis -- a complex phenomenon of the interaction between ecological, economic, and social environments--.