Page 19 - Changing Living Spaces

An Introduction to the Living Spaces Concept

even suggested that it was better not to engage with Brunner’s concept
(Opitz 1994, 97). Joachim Eibach also developed discussions in 2011, on
which an edited book was published in 2020 (Eibach 2011; Eibach and
Lanzinger 2020).
At first glance, the refocusing on people as internal nature seems to
be a human-centred view of history, but from an environmental histo-
ry perspective it reflects the need to develop a new discussion of the re-
lationship between humans and nature. In other words, although trends
may have led us away from direct research on the history of global en-
vironmental problems, historical research on environmental conscious-
ness has become mainstream. In this sense, while even Marx and Engels
cut off their conceptual world from ‘Verkehr’, it may be time to return to
‘Verkehr’. The direction of Eibach et al. can be judged as environmental
history along this line because the relationship to physical backgrounds
is more observable in the representation of individual sensibilities than
in the structural problems of society. The LiSA in this book presents not
only human self-understanding through historical materials, but also the
changing natural environment described in historical materials and cur-
rent information. We need a new perspective on how to incorporate the
natural and quasi-natural world to write economic and social history. But
how can we understand too diverse and scattered arguments and histori-
cal evidence in an integrated way?
Historical research is still tied to the language of each country and is
usually conducted in groups within a country, making it difficult to have
cross-national discussions. While it is possible to obtain figures for uni-
versally extensible statistical indicators such as fertility, mortality, or
core GDP, it is far from easy to deal with cultural events that involve dif-
ferent narratives. The same is true for the study of environmental his-
tory. The diversity of ecological and climatic environments on Earth is
subtly argued in historical studies, including economic history and even
environmental history. Different lifestyles may or may not be optimal an-
ywhere on the planet. Minor and subtle differences that are important to
coherent human life are often ignored.
Looking to networks such as the Social Science History Association
and the European Social Science History Conference, it was expected that
the ten groups would work across national boundaries and regions in the
future. However, the AeAeH, which has transformed itself into the Asian
Association for Environmental History (AAeH) in July, 2023, has not yet
successfully developed these issue-based networks.

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