2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Solidarity hubs as social infrastructure: A comparative approach to voluntary services for transient foreign workers in East Asian City-regions
| Project/Area Number |
22K01047
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
コルナトウスキ ヒェラルド 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究院, 准教授 (00614835)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | Solidarity hubs / Inner city / Social inequality / Diversity / Third sector geographies / Japan / Singapore |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Focusing on the Japanese case, I have conducted surveys and fieldwork in Fukuoka and Yokohama. Both cities share a similar spatial structure where long-term investment flows have concentrated on the CBD and reclaimed waterfront areas. On the other hand, their inner cities have been the target of ethic-led and/or ethnic-related small-scale investments, providing low-income employment and creating new spaces of consumption. The solidarity hubs emerging in these areas foremost deal with conspicuous forms of precarity attached to foreign low-income populations.In order to take account of the diversity of services and networking practices of these hubs, I have organized a workshop themed around social infrastructure for foreign low-income populations. In Fukuoka, steps to concentration and professionalization of services through networking and project development stood out, while in Yokohama the close presence of Kotobukicho's service hub serves as a service anchor. Finally, due the large representation of South-East Asian population, the role of religious facilities must be taken into account. They serve as culturally accepted forms of social infrastructure around which solidarity hubs can effectively materialize.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I have been able to make contact with various stakeholders that work with foreign population in Japanese city-regions. Through collaboration I have been able to bring these stakeholders together in a workshop and conduct a questionnaire in Yokohama. The upcoming fiscal year I will continue to develop the networking activities and initiate the Singapore survey.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will initiate the Singapore survey. I have already published on the service hubs for foreign workers in Singapore at an earlier stage. The next step will center around the various solidarity hubs that have emerged throughout Singapore during the previous lockdowns ('circuit breaker'). Specifically, I will examine how the solidarity hubs have covered for the lack of access to the service hubs, the actual networking practices among them, and the types of (new) services that were developed. As for the comparative framework, the scale of foreign populations as well the large geographical coverage compared to the Japanese case will be taken into account.
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