| Research Abstract |
The project's objectives were twofold: the first was to detect how social change in a community, community development, and life stages and aging relate to the project theme. This was achieved by conducting a panel interview survey in a community where a technopolis project, which had established technologically advanced industries in the community, was introduced. The second objective, using the results of a new nationwide Japanese survey,was to compare and contrast the Japanese results with similar existing surveys in other industrialized nations. This involved a cross-national perspective and aimed to find common and unique elements between and among these nations. Cultural link analysis, which we developed, was utilized. More specifically, for the first objective, two surveys were carried out; the first in 1983 among 268 interviewees at the Kibi Highland community in Okayama Prefecture, and the second in 1991 with the same respondents and almost identical questions among 258 interv
… More
iewees. We found, to a certain extent, attitudinal changes, as well as high data reliability and question validity. We also found that attitudes toward science and technology and assessment of the global environment are related to social and cultural contexts, especially cultural elements and traditional values, with these also related to community development. For the second objective, a nationwide survey by a professional survey institution was conducted among 1,484 interviewees over age 20 in late Oct/early Nov, 1992. By comparing this Japanese survey with four other industrialized nations, using cultural link analysis, we found common and unique elements between and among nations. The research methods and findings have been reported at the 30th Congress of the International Institute of Sociology (Kobe, August 1991), at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University, April, 1992), and at the "International Symposium on Public Understanding of Science and Technology" (October 1992, under the auspices of the Japan National Institute of Science and Technology Policy). Less
|
