Process of inequality in local community: focusing on social space with regard to various differences

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370923
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human geography
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: YOSHIDA Yoko 奈良女子大学, 人文科学系, 教授 (70265198)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 差異 / 格差・不平等 / 社会空間 / 地域社会 / ジェンダー / 人種

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study attempts to explain existing power relations among various actors in the local community, focusing on whether issues of inequality are influenced by their geographical backgrounds. My field survey in Kin-cho (Okinawa prefecture) showed that population flows from other areas, especially isolated islands around the Okinawa mainland, towards the entertainment district around the U.S. military base, in contrast to local people who despise businesses affecting public morals. Of late, the previous entertainment district has become a “receptacle” that accepts Filipinas owing to the progress of globalization. My survey of the Sorachi area (Hokkaido prefecture) showed that coal miners and their families, who had moved from various parts of the country to the Sorachi coal-mining area, identified their village as living spaces based on their relationships with their neighbors.

Free Research Field

人文地理学、とくに社会地理学