國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

This article explores the relationship between social capital and local government performance regarding brownfield redevelopment. Many studies have shown that social capital, a concept emphasizing trust, norms, and networking relationships, can reduce transaction cost and facilitate governmental performance. However, does social capital also increase governmental performance regarding brownfield redevelopment where intense conflicting interests exist among stakeholders? This research analyzes one of the four major industrial hazard cases in Japan, Minamata disease (involving methyl mercury poisoning in Minamata), to explore the function of social capital in the Minamata revitalization process. Over the past two decades, Minamata City has focused on organic agriculture and the recycling industry, earning an award as one of the six environmental protection model cities in Japan in 2008. Minamata’s successful brownfield development has impressed outsiders. Therefore, this study considers the function of social capital in this apparently successful revitalization case. The author interviewed ten local figures including leaders of local non-profit organizations and local government officials and attempts to answer two research questions by analyzing the qualitative in-depth interview data. The first research question involves the characteristics of brownfield social capital. The major point of this research question is that brownfield sites are different from usual communities because of the intense conflicting interests among stakeholders and the inequality of cost and benefit distribution between polluters and brownfield residents. Therefore, there should be unique characteristics to brownfield social capital. The second question entails exploring to what degree social capital can explain local government performance in redeveloping brownfield sites. As stated above, social capital is expected to have a positive effect on governmental performance. However, is this causal relationship the same in the case of brownfield redevelopment? The research results show that brownfield social capital exhibits different characteristics from common community social capital. Most importantly, the connection between social capital and local government performance is quite loose in the case of the Minamata revitalization.