2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Social-Geographical Studies on Effects of Shared Bathing in Villages on Communally Societal Cohesion
| Project/Area Number |
14580096
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Human geography
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| Research Institution | University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences |
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Principal Investigator |
SHIRAISHI Taroh University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences, Department of Service Industry, Professor, サービス産業学部, 教授 (90179036)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2004
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| Keywords | Community-Public baths / Communities / Bathing acts / Neighborhood groups of people / Mutual aid / Availability of hot spring / the Sae-Maul (New Village) campaign / Communal public bathing amusement centers |
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| Research Abstract |
The findings of my studies can be summarized as follows.
1) There are three types of community public baths in terms of socioeconomic conditions, i.e., a) sharing a bath as a housing function by numeral families, b) those managed by neighborhood groups of people, and c) those by villages where a kind of an expanding structure is observed in respects of the formation, facility, and management of the bathing houses especially in the northern Kyushu area.
2) While public bathing in hot springs is generally of an exclusive nature under the influence of community unions to outsiders, it can be found to function as a factor of communal formation and mobilization.
3) Newly established public bathing amusement centers make a contribution to communal formation in cooperation with the municipal welfare administration.
4) While public bathing houses were established in villages as a part of the Sae-Maul (New Village) campaign for a general improvement of living standards in South Korea, the disorganized management of the bathing houses did not give a noticeable effect on community formation or communal living.
5) Bathing is an individual act, yet its sharing deeds with others in a community give an opportunity of collective mobilization and promote communally societal cohesion. Accordingly, it can be recognized that while bathing itself is an unsociable everyday act, public bathing is fulfilling significant social functions in communities and villages.
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Research Products
(8 results)
