Governing the Urban Climate in Fukuoka City, Japan: What Can a Policy Narrative Approach Teach Us?

Mabon, Leslie (2022). Governing the Urban Climate in Fukuoka City, Japan: What Can a Policy Narrative Approach Teach Us? In: Miyauchi, Taisuke and Fukunaga, Mayumi eds. Adaptive Participatory Environmental Governance in Japan. Tokyo: Springer Nature Singapore, pp. 305–319.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2509-1_14

Abstract

This contribution works with a policy narrative for green- and open space planning in Fukuoka, Japan, and assesses the role that the idea of kaiteki kankyo—a comfortable environment—plays in facilitating action towards maintaining a comfortable urban environment. Boundary objects and boundary concepts are terms and ideas which are vague and flexible enough to allow different interpretations, yet also robust enough to enable different groups to talk with one another and reach outcomes. By looking at policies for the urban green environment in Fukuoka since the 1980s, and also analysing practice-focused academic texts, the chapter argues that a comfortable environment does indeed function as a boundary object in Fukuoka. Whilst standards for attaining ‘comfort’ are never defined, the comfortable environment terminology persists over time in Fukuoka across different rationales for greenspace planning, from urban redevelopment to sustainability to climate adaptation. The chapter also cautions, however, that boundary concepts may draw actors towards more technocratic outcomes, and divert from attention to social processes which may help to sustain a narrative of a comfortable environment outside of the formal policy process.

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