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project leader, chairman of the undergraduate school commission,
and professor in the Faculty of Social Welfare |
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Ryu Niki |
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Time flies, and we are already in the fourth year of the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program and only have two more years left. Here, I would like to reconfirm the objectives of the project, review the achievements of the past three years, and describe the vision for the next two years.
Objectives of the project and the achievements of the past three years
(1) Objectives of the project and publication of "Fukushi Shakai Kaihatsugaku no Kouchiku (Establishment of Welfare Society Development Studies)"
The goal of this project is to first integrate policy science and evaluation studies in the welfare field, which focuses on care of elderly persons in developed countries, and participatory social development in developing countries to create a new study field called "welfare society development studies," and then form its Asian base with our university as the core. Although these two study fields already independently exist not only domestically but also internationally, their integration and fusion is an ambitious global endeavor.
For this reason, in this project we have been studying five related fields separately for the past three years (5 areas from the third year on), and at the same time, we, as part of the COE Promotion Committee where researchers and undergraduate students from all the fields (areas) participate, have been carrying out interdisciplinary joint studies with the goal to develop welfare society development studies which would become a shared infrastructure for the abovementioned related fields.
The first achievement of such an approach is publication of "Fukushi Shakai Kaihatsugaku no Kouchiku (Establishment of Welfare Society Development Studies)" published in March 2005 by MINERVA SHOBO. This book successfully indicates the basic characteristics of welfare society development studies. For example, "regional communities" are valued as a policy environment, and "process approach" and "outcome evaluation," which focus on interactions among entities in regional communities, are integrated. This book can be considered the interim report for establishment of welfare society development studies.
(2) World-level research achievements or research that may produce world-level achievements now in the preparatory stage
Publication of "Chiiki Shakai to Kaihatsu no Shoso (Aspects of Regional Communities and Development)," for which Professor Yogo played the central role in the compiling, is the world-level achievement from research that began after the program started with the goal of forming the Asian base of welfare society development studies. This literature will be in six volumes written in English, and publication will start from the first volume this year. This is the summarization of what is called the "Yogo theory" used in the field of micro development and training for developing countries, and such theory is examined in the joint study by top-level universities and researchers from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, and South America.
Then, there are two research projects whose outcome could become world-level achievements. First is establishment and accumulation of nursing-care databases for each local government and user, and development and operation of elderly person care policy evaluation software created based on these databases. By using this software, elderly person care can be evaluated multi-dimensionally at the macro, mezzo, and micro levels, and the result of such evaluation is used as basic information material for policy evaluation or reformation of nursing-care insurance. These databases and evaluation software are the best available, and will be used in policy evaluation studies of elderly person care in South Korea in the future.
Second is publication of "Nikkan Ryokoku ni okeru Fukushi Kokka no Keisei, Saihen to Fukushi Shakai no Kaihatsu (Formation and Reorganization of Welfare States, and Development of Welfare Society in both Japan and South Korea)" by Chuohoki Publishers. This is a joint study by Japanese and South Korean researchers mainly from our university to suggest the potentiality of the "East Asia welfare state model" which differs from the conventional, Euro-American-centered, welfare state model. By suggesting such a model, standards and perspectives for new aspects of welfare states comparison are provided.
(3) Organizational approach to formation of the Asian base
As for the achievements in an approach to forming the Asian base, there are five of them. The study and training system for forming the Asian base of welfare society development studies was promptly developed.
First, for the study system within the school, carrying out and inspection of research activities have been incorporated in our administrative and operation organization. Conventionally, even a middle-sized mid-level university like ours experiences barriers among departments, research courses, and research fields, but due to this organizational reform, we have been able to promote interdisciplinary joint studies overcoming all of these barriers.
Second, there have been joint studies, research exchanges, and joint training projects with the University of Manchester in England and also major Asian universities such as Yonsei University, Nanjing University, University of the Philippines, and National University of Mongolia. Third, since adoption of COE, the number of excellent overseas undergraduate students from China, South Korea, and other developing countries we accept has been rapidly increasing. Fourth, we are holding human resource development training sessions in various parts of Japan for revitalization of mountainous areas and welfare society development with the cooperation of target local governments.
Fifth, and the most noticeable achievement, five of the COE project staff members earned their Ph.D. in 2005 (three from the Social Welfare Study Course, two from the Information and Management Development Study Course, and seven in total from the entire university). The weak point of this COE project in its first and the second years was that only a few staff members earned their Ph.D., and it was clearly pointed out at the project interim evaluation. In 2005, however, we were able to overcome this problem. Furthermore, there will be more Ph.D. students in 2006 and on.
Vision for the next two years: three goals and plans to realize them
In our study project, we have three goals to be achieved within the next two years: (a) present two major research achievements in the field of welfare society development study; (b) continuing from 2005, produce Ph.D. students from among the COE staff members; and (c) form a domestic as well as international base for training and human resources for welfare society development.
(a) Present two major research achievements in the field of welfare society development study
The first achievement will be active continuation of studies in five individual areas, with integration and fusion of these fields into welfare society development studies in mind, and presentation of research results domestically and internationally. More specifically, in addition to presentation in specialized magazines and publication of specialized books, presentation to the international community is highly valued. This was also one of the aspects of this project that was pointed out as insufficient in the interim evaluation last year.
As for presentation to the international community, this project emphasizes the importance of making presentation not only in English but also in East Asian languages (Chinese, Korean, and Mongolian). The first step of such efforts was publication of a collection of my research papers translated into Korean in South Korea ("Nihon no Kaigo Hoken Seido to Hoken, Eryou, Fukushi Fukugoutai (Japanese Nursing-Care Insurance System and a Health-Healthcare-Welfare Complex) translated by Hyoung-Sun Jeong, professor of Yonsei University, published by Young Doctor Co. Ltd.).
The second achievement will be publication of "Fukushi Shakai Kaihatsu Gaku (Welfare Society Development Studies)" (tentative title) which integrates research results of five areas in each field. This will also serve as a more advanced textbook with graduate school education in mind. The book will have the following three parts and will be published in 2007.
Part 1 Theory of welfare society development studies: Chapter 1 Theoretical framework, Chapter 2 Policy and area types, and Chapter 3 Policy science. Part 2 Issues and policy tasks of welfare society development studies: Chapter 1 Social development and international economy, Chapter 2 Social rejection and inclusion strategies, and Chapter 3 Poverty and regional strategies. Part 3 Development and evaluation of the welfare society development program, and development of human resources: Chapter 1 Reality of welfare society development program evaluation, with emphasis on Japan and South Korea, and Chapter 2 Human resource development for welfare society development.
(b) Production of Ph.D.s from COE staff members
We put an emphasis on earning of a Ph.D. by not only Japanese undergraduate students but also by overseas graduate students. This is because we have a rapidly growing number of excellent and motivated students especially from China and South Korea since the project started. From this year on, we will dramatically increase the number of teachers participating in the project who earn the degree (Ph.D. by thesis). Also, as we have a saying "Lead the way by setting an example," I will also try to earn my second Ph.D. in social welfare studies.
(c) Forming of a domestic and international base for training and human resource development for welfare society development
In Japan, we plan to establish at least one training center in addition to the one at our university. We plan to have it either in Sakuchiiki of Nagano or Mogamimachi in Yamagata. As for overseas, we plan to establish training centers at multiple Southeast Asian universities. It is almost certain that a training center will be established at the University of the Philippines and the University of JaffnaSri Lanka, but at the same time, we are examining the possibility of building one at a Malaysian university. At each university, COE will cooperate in establishment and operation of the training center. Furthermore, joint research projects with major Korean and Chinese universities will be established. More specifically, the "Japan-Korea joint symposium" with YonseiUniversity will be held each year from 2006, and also, research and training projects with NanjingUniversity in China will be enhanced. The possibility of starting joint studies with other major Chinese or Korean universities is currentlyunder consideration. |
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