○Sarkar's Proutist Economy
In 1959, Indian philosopher P.R. Sarkar proposed the Proutist economy (PROUT). This is an acronym for "Progressive Utilization Theory", a social system to replace capitalism and communism. Below are its key points.
・Humans possess material, knowledge, and spirit, and the balance of these three is important.
・Humans try to pursue happiness infinitely, but material things cannot satisfy it eternally. Only the spirit that connects infinitely can fulfill it.
・Guarantee of four basic rights: the practice of spirituality, cultural heritage, education, and unique language expression.
・Aim for the unification of mankind by establishing a world federation.
・Promote self-sufficiency in regions.
・Land and all things of nature are the common property of mankind. The right to manage and operate them should be given to those with high spirituality and appropriate abilities.
・Ensure that all people worldwide can enjoy things necessary for life, such as food, medical care, education, and housing.
・Complete safety of all animals and plants on earth is guaranteed.
・The advancement of science and technology does not alone bring happiness to humans. New inventions adopted only after completely eliminating the negatives are true progress for humanity, otherwise, they should not be adopted.
○Social Structure of Prout Village
Sarkar proposed the Proutist economy in 1959, and times have changed since then. The evolution of this Proutist economy into a modern version leads to the Prout Village.
Next, incorporating the nature of human beings and scientific technology we have seen so far, we will examine the social structure of the Prout Village, from the family to the World Federation. The relationship always involves higher organizations ceding some of their rights and authority to lower organizations.
6、Self-sufficient households
5、Municipalities (equivalent to cities, or Prout Villages) composed of households
4、Counties composed of municipalities
3、Nations composed of counties
2、Six continents composed of nations
1、The World Federation composed of six continents
In general notation, the World Federation might be positioned at the top, but here it is positioned at the bottom. The reason is found in a passage from the book "Tao Te Ching (Laozi)" written during the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China.
"Chapter 66: The reason why the river and the sea can be the king of all valley streams is that they lie well below them."
Humility and self-effacement, this is the basic attitude of the World Federation and its leaders.
In the municipalities (Prout Village), counties, nation, continents, and the World Federation, three organizations are commonly established: general affairs, medical food, and manufacturing, performing activities as their names suggest according to their scale.
○Municipality
・General Affairs (administrative matters related to municipal operations and education)
・Medical Food (matters related to medical care, food, and agriculture)
・Manufacturing (manufacturing of general living goods, resource survey, infrastructure design, municipal design such as locations of residences and farmlands)
○County
○Nation
○Six Continents
○World Federation
○Municipalities (Prout Village)
Families practicing self-sufficiency come together to form the municipality known as Prout Village. In Prout Village, municipalities often have a population of around 60,000 residents. Central facilities, akin to schools where residents interact and engage in various activities, are constructed in the heart of the municipality as multipurpose facilities. These multipurpose facilities consist of three buildings: an administrative building, a manufacturing building, and an arts center, with an underground parking facility below. If there are historical structures, shrines, or temples in the vicinity of the municipality, they are typically managed by the nearest municipality. The design of the entire village is based on whether it is comfortable for elderly and physically challenged individuals to live, without posing any issues for the able-bodied.
○Flower of Life
The construction site of the Prout Village is chosen with the expectation that natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides may occur, and places with high risk are avoided. Coastal and riverside areas are prone to flooding due to tsunamis and floods. Lessons from earthquakes hundreds of years ago include stone monuments and documents that indicate where tsunamis will strike, so they are also referred to when deciding.
The layout of residences in the Prout Village is not linear like in a monetary society, but instead, residences are arranged based on a circular pattern called the Flower of Life.
The municipality, referred to as Prout Village, serves as the unit of a single town with a diameter of 4 km (a radius of 2 km). Initially, six households are arranged in a circular pattern, and these circles come together to form seven, creating new concentric circles. Everything is arranged in a circular fashion. In the center, you'll find multipurpose facilities, including an administrative building, an art gallery, and a manufacturing facility.
The 444m diameter circle where the multipurpose facility is located is the central square, which is large enough to fit four baseball stadiums and is used for purposes that require space, such as sports, festivals, concerts. A gymnasium is also located in the circle where the art building is.
As of 2015, the average number of members in a Japanese household was about 2.5 people. The following numbers show the transition in the average number of household members from the Edo period.
Edo period 1600s: 6-7 people
Edo period 1750s: 4 people
Taisho and Meiji period 1868-1926: average number of household members 5.02
Showa period 1950s: average number of household members 5 (couple and three children)
Showa period 1970s: average number of household members 3.69
Heisei period 2010s: average number of household members 2.51
When the village is built based on the Flower of Life, if all households are a family of five, 75,600 people can live in one Prout Village. If all households are a family of three, 42,336 people can live there.
○Reason for a 4km diameter circle
The distance from the edge of the town to the central multipurpose facility is 2km, which is a 30-minute walk one way. Generally, this is a pleasant walking distance. However, if it takes 45 minutes to an hour one way, even if one can walk there, the burden of returning becomes significant. To keep the Prout Village active, it is important to keep the village within a pleasant walking distance.
If it's a walkable distance, it will also be within a cyclable range. For children around the age of 14 entering their second growth phase, cycling more than 3km can feel like a long way. In a monetary society, parents may also hesitate to let their children cycle long distances over 4km due to worries about car accidents. In the Prout Village, it is assumed that people will visit the central multipurpose facility every day, and so consideration is given to placing residences within 2-3km so that even small children can move around by bike. Therefore, a diameter of 4km is a distance that both adults and children can easily commute to on foot or by bike, and it can be considered one guideline for the village.
While designs other than the Flower of Life are expected to be produced in future research, at this point, we will proceed with this design as the basic form.
○Multipurpose Facilities
Multipurpose facilities are built in the center of the Prout Village, and residences are arranged in a circular pattern from the center to construct the municipality.
The power for these multipurpose facilities will also be self-generated, primarily from hydropower, power from plants and mud, and power from cut grass and vegetable scraps. Regarding the tallest buildings in the municipality, in countries like Japan where earthquakes frequently occur, the taller the building, the more it shakes and furniture can fall over. Therefore, unless there are significant reasons, buildings will be kept lower than trees in the municipality's initiatives. This also has the advantage of not destroying the view that can be seen far and wide.
Then, three organizations are set up to manage the municipal information: the General Affairs Department, the Medical and Food Department, and the Manufacturing Department. In the center of the municipality, three buildings are constructed: the Administrative Building, the Art Building, and the Manufacturing Building.
The Administrative Building houses various administrative organizations, management rooms (ICT, electricity, water), fire trucks, accommodation facilities, funeral parlors, crematoriums, animal incinerators, and other facilities for running the municipality. ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology, a general term for Internet and information and communication technologies.
The Art Building houses facilities for art activities such as activity rooms, performance venues, exhibition rooms, libraries, and hospitals. The Manufacturing Building gathers facilities related to manufacturing such as various factory equipment and pottery rooms. Furthermore, an underground parking lot is created beneath these multipurpose facilities.
○Location and Number of Prout Village Constructions
Japan is a country prone to earthquakes, and there's also a risk of tsunamis. Looking back at the history of tsunamis in Japan within a time frame of 200 years, some region has been hit by a large tsunami, causing fatalities. This means that if Prout Villages are built along the coast, some of them will be swallowed by a tsunami within 200 years. In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the tsunami pushed up to 10 km inland. In Japan, when you go 10 km inland from the coast, you usually see mountains. Therefore, Japan should be a country that should create residential areas in mountainous regions. Moreover, from past data, it is evident that large earthquakes are likely to occur at the boundaries of continental plates, but it is still difficult to predict where they will occur.
Next, we will look at the "Possible locations for Prout Village construction" in Japan and their number. First, please read the following QR code (Google Map) on your mobile phone, or click the link below and enlarge the map data to view it.
Prout Village Possible Construction Locations Link
This map is color-coded as follows:
・Green lines: Continental plates
・Blue circles: The range within 50 km from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture
・Red: A guideline for possible locations for Prout Village construction. One red circle has a diameter of 4 km.
(We are avoiding 10 km inland from the coast and 4 km around the plate)
We are avoiding 4 km around the continental plate, but if a magnitude 9 class huge earthquake occurs, it shakes greatly from 10 to 20 km from the epicenter. The important thing is that earthquakes can occur anywhere in Japan, so the only thing to do is to make the house itself safe even if a huge earthquake occurs. If the house does not collapse and things do not fall from above, most fatalities can be avoided. Therefore, it will involve devising ways of arranging furniture and lighting.
Of Japan's total land area of 377,900 square kilometers, about 33.6% or 127,000 square kilometers is considered habitable. Within that, construction of 2942 Prout Villages is possible. In these, 41,517,504 residences can be built, but the number of households in Japan as of 2016 was 51,850,000, of which 16,800,000 were single-person households. The number of single-person households in Japan has been increasing year by year, but using the 2016 figures, if you build 1100 residences for single-person households where 6 people live in each Prout Village, housing can be provided to all citizens.
◯In the case of one Prout Village
There would be 13,012 family residences, and 1,100 single-person residences x 6 rooms = 6,600 rooms, totaling 19,612 units (14,112 of which would be houses).
◯For the 2,942 Prout Villages throughout Japan
There would be 38,281,304 family residences, and 3,236,200 single-person residences x 6 rooms = 19,417,200 rooms (units), totaling 57,698,504 units (41,517,504 of which would be houses).
◯As a comparison, the number of households in Japan (as of 2016)
There were 35,050,000 family residences and 16,800,000 single-person residences, totaling 51,850,000 residences.
Japan is experiencing a decline in birthrate, and it is predicted that the population will decrease to 125.96 million in 2020, 116.62 million in 2030, and 91.93 million in 2055. This means that the number of residences will decrease year by year. Unoccupied residences will be used as accommodation for people coming from outside.
This approach, put another way, is about not creating cities anywhere, and it's an idea that can apply to countries other than Japan. By setting a limit on the number of residences in a municipality, urbanization can be prevented. If urbanization occurs, it leads to a concentration in cities like Tokyo or Osaka, and if a large disaster such as a major earthquake occurs, village dwellers lose both food and transportation.
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