Challenges to “de-accelerated development” in small regional cities: Findings from a survey of the cittaslow movements in Italy, South Korea, and Japan [Not invited]
Tetsutada SUZUKI
地域社会学会第50回大会 2025/05 Oral presentation Tokyo Keizai University Japan Association of Regional and Community Studies
This report focuses on the “de-accelerated development” of modern small and medium-sized cities as a research topic, with a particular emphasis on the cittaslow (slow city) movements. After describing the findings of field research, I will interpret their significance within the context of the “acceleration of modern society.” By doing so, I will attempt to critically examine the meaning of “local re-examination” as an alternative to developmentism and its global (and sometimes planetary) implications.
The modern era can be described as a “society of acceleration without brakes.” Many residents of large cities feel that “there are convenient things everywhere, but not enough time.” However, acceleration was already inherent in the Enlightenment, which marked the dawn of modernity, and through political and economic modernization, it permeated social institutions and daily life while undergoing periodic crises and renewal. According to David Harvey, who analyzed this process from the perspective of capital logic, the stagnation of economic growth in the early 1970s and the efforts to overcome it became the driving force behind modern acceleration. The relentless pursuit of “the extinction of space through time” and “the reduction of capital turnover time” successfully transitioned from Fordism to flexible capital accumulation, thereby advancing the “compression of time-space.” Harvey characterized “compression” as the feature that “overcomes spatial barriers while accelerating the pace of life” (The Condition of Postmodernity, translated by Naoki Yoshihara, 1990=2022, pp. 366, 383).
From another perspective, Hartmut Rosa analyzed acceleration and systematized the logic of acceleration itself as “social acceleration”. From its dawn, modern society has driven the acceleration of society as a whole through three forms: technological innovation, social change, and the tempo of life. In late modernity, social acceleration has surpassed “a certain critical point,” and even if there are ideas or practices aimed at slowing down social life (“oases of deceleration”), they are merely transient phenomena. It is nearly impossible to effectively interrupt the acceleration cycle, according to the diagnosis of the era (The Accelerating Society, translated by Tsuyoshi Deguchi, 2005=2022, pp. 83-4, 108, 200). Furthermore, empirical research exploring the long-term impact of humanity has also pointed to the “Great Acceleration” of indicators linking the socio-economic systems of advanced nations with the Earth system (Steffen, W. et al. “The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration,” Anthropocene Review, 2015).
Among local initiatives challenging such acceleration trends, the cittaslow movement is worth noting. In the 1980s, the Slow Food movement emerged in small cities in northern and central Italy, aiming to restore meaningful connections between food and the global environment. In 1999, the cittaslow movement was born in Italy, seeking to apply the principles of the Slow Food movement to urban policy as a whole. Local cities with populations of 50,000 or less in disadvantaged areas established an international network with mayors and local governments who shared the philosophy of “living well (buon vivere).” In the 2000s, they specified certification criteria including “appropriate-scale urban development,” “balancing the environment and growth,” and “respect for regional characteristics,” and established a universal framework and quality assurance system. The cittaslow International, which has gained support from countries outside Italy, now spans 30 countries and 300 cities as of 2025. Italy has the most members with 87, South Korea has the most in East Asia with 17, and Japan has two cities, Kesennuma and Maebashi, officially joining.
This report aims to understand the dilemmas faced by mayors, local governments, and residents of cittaslow member cities in Italy, South Korea, and Japan, and how they respond to these challenges, by positioning them within the context of the acceleration of modern society, the Slow philosophy, and local practices. While this movement overlaps with the “degrowth” ideological trend, it is not necessarily aligned with it; therefore, this report refers to it as “de-accelerated development.”