6.Globalization and Social Change in East Asia
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| This research team aims to identify the impacts and consequences of macro changes on people's lives in today’s East Asia, and to point out the social risks involved. Today’s East Asia is one of the most rapidly changing regions throughout the world. This is largely due to major infrastructural changes in politics, economics, and culture, including changes in transportation infrastructure as construction of “One Belt, One Road”, conflict between democracy and non-democracy, expansion of the information infrastructure and the increasing complexity of information distribution channels. At an individual level, these changes can bring greater economic opportunities and increased rights to speak out politically. However, at the same time they could cause the collapse of traditional culture and the dissolution of communities and families. Taking the One Belt One Road policy as an example, restructuring of the economic zone and improvement to economic conditions had been drawing much attention at the start since 2012, but since around 2019, the attention has shifted to how much exploitation and economic deprivation (excessive indebtedness at the national level) this policy will bring. On the other hand, there still are many aspects that remain unknown in this research area. It seems that the obstacles to conducting the research with certain quality maintained is the enormousness of the social changes, and the fact that what is happening right now is the subject of the research. For this reason, the primary objective of this research project is to identify social changes by initially focusing on people’s lives. If our observations suggest that major social changes will increase risks in people's lives, efforts should be made to sound the alarm. | 1/4/2021 | 31/3/2026 |
