Page 17 - Changing Living Spaces

An Introduction to the Living Spaces Concept

tial places such as cities, towns, and villages and their socioeconomic, geo-
graphic, and climatological conditions; (2) sources of various resources and
their transportation; (3) geographic dimensions of cultural identification;
(4) nature-induced disasters and disaster-prone areas; (5) the Earth and
changing natural conditions.
Table 1 was originally prepared when the author was president of the
Association for East Asian Environmental History (AeAeH) and held
the 3rd East Asian Environmental History Conference (eAeH 2015) in
Takamatsu, Japan. The conference was attended by researchers from all
over the world who are mainly concerned with the environmental his-
tory of East Asia. Each session was organized according to the interests
of each participant in different research topics and issues. The goal was
to form research groups among academics based on their research inter-
est instead of national identities. The table was compiled with Akihisa
Setoguchi (past president of the East Asian Environmental History
Society), Anne McDonald, and others.
The Living Spaces Approach (LiSA) is a holistic approach that is the
antithesis of the analytical segmented approach. However, the approach
does not exclude an analytical segmentation and could combine some dif-
ferent analytical dimensions. Table 1 shows the elements of Living Spaces
divided into ten overarching themes: (1) animals; (2) plants; (3) microor-
ganisms; (4) water; (5) air; (6) land; (7) disasters; (8) foods; (9) waste; and
(10) humans. Each topic has an original approach as academic fields have
developed along the lines of disciplines relevant to the topic. However,
depending on the selected theme, several academic approaches from dif-
ferent unrelated fields may be combined into one innovative approach,
adding a new dimension to existing academic fields. In this sense, LiSA is
an innovative approach to local and regional studies and fieldwork.
This innovative approach to historical and contemporary studies al-
lows for the creation of a new study of transport relations between hu-
mans and nature, using multidimensional disciplines, depending on the
issues to be addressed. However, a contemporary of Marx and Engels,
Friedrich Heinrich Riehl, never saw such a deep connection in ‘traf-
fic’. Riehl used this three-dimensional word, encompassing material
exchange, intercourse, and traffic, entirely without sceptical and criti-
cal thinking, although he did introduce the influential term ‘the whole
house’, meaning the management of a German family’s home (Riehl 1854).
At one time, a leading German medievalist, Otto Brunner, developed
Riehl’s concept as a social history of the family, but was heavily criti-

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