Environmental Anthropology

Faculty

Prof.
Alyne E. Delaney

Research Overview

The Environmental Anthropology Lab at Tohoku University conducts interdisciplinary, field-based research on the complex relationships between human societies and their environments, with a particular focus on coastal and marine settings in Japan and beyond. While grounded in cultural anthropology, our work spans disciplinary boundaries to engage with lived experiences of environmental change, cultural heritage, and community resilience.
Our research spans the globe, but also centers on Japan’s coastal and island regions—areas where livelihoods, governance structures, and cultural identities are deeply intertwined with the sea and surrounding natural landscapes. Through this lens, we investigate a range of sociocultural and ecological dynamics, including:

• Human–environment interactions in coastal and island communities
• Traditional livelihoods and land-sea management (e.g., satoyama, satoumi, and emerging practices like umigyō)
• Cultural heritage, local ecological knowledge, and place attachment
• Climate change adaptation, disaster recovery, and resilience
• The impact of policy frameworks on coastal societies (e.g., post-3.11 reconstruction and fisheries law reforms); environmental, social, and blue justice
• Community revitalization and sustainable futures

Our Research Approach

Ethnographic fieldwork forms the foundation of our methodology. We prioritize deep engagement with communities, emphasizing listening, participation, and learning from local perspectives and lived experiences. In addition to ethnography, we employ a range of mixed methods, including:

• Qualitative and quantitative data collection
• Visual methods (e.g., photography, participatory mapping, film)
• Collaborative research co-designed with local partners
• Transdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists, marine scientists, and policy experts

Through these methods, we seek to understand how communities respond to environmental pressures, navigate changing policies, and sustain meaningful relationships with land and sea. Central to our work are concepts such as resilience, umigyō, satoyama/satoumi, place-based knowledge, and cultural landscapes.

Keywords

Applied Anthropology, Coastal Cultures, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, Governance, Human–Environmental Interactions, Ethnography, Satoyama / Satoumi, Social Sustainability, Social-Ecological Systems, Resilience, Umigyō, Visual Methods, Regional experience, Japan, Korean peninsula; European Union, Greenland, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa

Contact

alyne.delaneytohoku.ac.jp