Folk Performing Arts, Community Life, and Well-being: Why shishimai Matters in Toyama, Japan

Paragrana ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-153
Author(s):  
Yoko Nagao

Abstract There is a growing awareness in Japan that well-being is closely linked to social relationships. It is often expressed as a call for tsunagari, relationships with a willing mutual involvement. This paper examines what kind of tsunagari can be fostered through folk performing arts which are rooted in a longstanding belief in a sacred beast represented as shishi (lion). The theory of ritualization is employed to approach shishimai (lion dance) as practice which is inextricably connected to the local perception of well-being. The close observation of hamlets carrying out shishimai in Toyama reveals that it reflects the state of a community and of its members, and often generates intimate and integrative social relations. They not only provide useful resources to attain well-being but are also extended to the symbolic and spiritual dimensions.

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Yurii Zhornokui

Problem setting. The development of social relations, the economic well-being of the population and the stable social structure of any state in the present circumstances are conditioned by a series of factors, one of which is the development of innovative infrastructure. One of the most important directions of development of the economic sector of our country was the formation of an innovative model of the economy, which puts to law the new tasks of clarifying the purpose and social value of law as a regulator of social relations. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The current state of the study of the selected issues indicates that the sources from which public-law organizations are investing innovative activities of small and medium-sized innovative entrepreneurship in the EU are insufficient. At the same time, the state policy of the EU countries in the scientific and technical sphere is realized through the use of various instruments, which include: legislation, tax policy, size and nature of the allocation of budget funds, including for the implementation of works in priority areas, the formation and maintenance of infrastructure, personnel, etc. Target of research is to identify the public and legal means of investing small and medium innovative entrepreneurship in the EU. Article’s main body. In the EU, the innovative component of public policy encompasses the scope of national scientific institutions (institutes, research centers, university laboratories, etc.). There are government programs that receive partial funding from the state budget. The state is guided by different criterias when deciding on the financing of specific works. First, the prospect of each specific direction is evaluated from the point of view of preserving the country’s achieved position on the world market in the future. Second, the recognition at the governmental level of innovation as a vital factor of economic development, the conduct of a broad government company on the problems of innovation. The current state of regulatory support suggests that structural funds such as the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund should be considered as the main public sources of investment for innovative enterprises. In particular, such funds are implementing EIC Pathfinder Pilot, FET Innovation Launchpad, EIC Transition to Innovation Activity, EIC Accelerator, Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) etc. Conclusions and prospects for the development. In the EU, the investment of small and medium enterprises is not homogeneous, but a large part of them, despite the large number of investment support tools for such companies, face significant challenges in accessing investment resources. Developing a successful pan-European policy requires an indepth understanding of the problems and specifics of financing the innovation activities of small and medium innovative enterprises in EU Member States.


Author(s):  
Anastasiia N. Klimonova

The work is devoted to the study of the state policy of Russia in the field of improving the welfare of the population, changes in its influence on the welfare of the country’s population in different periods of history. We consider various interpretations of the concept of welfare, their changes in the course of history. We conclude that the state policy to ensure and improve the well-being of the population was constantly subject to transformation and reorientation depending on the level of society development, the nature of social relations, the political system, the state system, the priority of external and internal problems. It is determined that in the population welfare system a special place is occupied by the income category, as one of the indicators characterizing the quantitative aspect of the population’s welfare. The nature of state policy in different periods had a direct impact on the situation in the sphere of the population’s well-being. Particular attention is paid to the fact that a sharp change in the state policy in the field of population welfare from the command-administrative methods of the Soviet period to the almost complete “withdrawal” of the state from the social sphere in the 1990s, caused a noticeable decline in welfare, especially the incomes of most of the population of Russia, the negative consequences of radical political changes are felt in early 21st century.


Author(s):  
Maritta Törrönen

Abstract The mental health of young people is a pressing concern in global development. However, there is little research on how young adults report their own mental health. The interview data gathered in this study (n = 74) explored young adults’ well-being during the transition period from care to independent living under an English local authority and in Finland. Participatory action research methods were employed. The interview schedule included 71 open and closed questions, and was analysed by content and summarised using the SPSS software application and Excel tables. The themes concerning mental health and social relationships were divided into three categories: ‘They have been there for me’, ‘My friends are the only ones’ and ‘They just guided me’. Participants who felt they had supportive social networks also felt their mental well-being and security to be better than those who did not. Overall, the findings demonstrated that good, significant social relations provided a sense of security but did not guarantee a positive mental outlook. Exploring young adults’ own evaluations of their social networks provides social work practitioners with sensitive information with which to find ways for young people to support their mental health in their own terms.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera L. Buijs ◽  
Gert Stulp

Friends are important for well-being, yet who people consider to be friends is much less evident. With a novel method to examine social relationships while decreasing respondent burden (GENSI), we obtained detailed information on 25 relationships of each of the 706 respondents from a representative sample of Dutch women (age 18-40). Specifically, we examined: i) which kind of personal relations were most often identified as friends, ii) to what extent relationship strength measured by closeness and frequency of contact (face-to-face and other forms) could predict friendships, and iii) whether the importance of relationship characteristics in determining friendships differed with age. People met in school were most likely (>70%), and family members were least likely to be friends (20%). Friendships were most often close relationships with more non-face-to-face contact, whereas meeting in person was less predictive. Even with three measures of relationship strength, it was difficult to predict whether somebody was considered a friend, particularly among family. With advancing age, women reported fewer friends, but closeness and frequency of contact were similarly important for friendships at different ages. Friendships were difficult to predict, implying that individuals understand friendships in different ways, and often overlapped with other social roles like family and colleagues. In conclusion, even though friends are of considerable importance for people’s well-being, there is still much to learn about what makes a friend. These results reiterate the difficulty in getting a grip on the term “friend”, and are important for those scholars working on social relations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 208-212
Author(s):  
Bettina Bläsing ◽  
Beatriz Calvo-Merino

Dance has become a topic of increasing interest for empirical research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology. The study reviewed in this chapter aimed to reach a multifaceted community of scholars and practitioners interested in the blending between neuroscience and dance as an art form. It includes a revision on dancers’ physical expertise and skilled motor execution, studies on dancers’ timing and online synchronization abilities, and learning and memory processes, as well as a consideration of expert dancers as skilled dance observers. Following the authors’ comment on the article, they acknowledge major developments since its publication, in particular regarding recent lines of research on emotional components of dance, creativity, aesthetic perception, improvisation, entrainment, empathy, and well-being. Finally, the authors emphasize the impact of empirical research in dance beyond cognitive neuroscience and psychology and consider the potential of multidisciplinary expert teams that include the performing arts community to contribute to discourses in the arts and the sciences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina A. Baeva ◽  
Larisa A. Gayazova ◽  
Irina V. Kondakova

Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by the importance of the category “psychological safety” for the support of the life quality of modern people, which is influenced in a complicated way by physical health, psychological well-being, value preferences, features of social relations and their relation to the characteristic features of the environment. The state of psychological safety is a significant factor ensuring the effectiveness of еducation, upbrining and development of the younger generation. However, the personal resources that contribute to the support of this state among adolescents and young people in the educational environment are more understudied. The purpose of the article is to determine the resources of adolescents, which are the predictors of the state of psychological safety. Materials and Methods. The method “Psychological safety of the educational environmentˮ developed by I.А. Baeva was used to study students’ level of psychological safety. The method of S. Schwartz was used to assess the personality’s value orientations, to assess the level of psychological well-being – were used Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being (RPWB), the level of loneliness – UCLA Loneliness Scale (D. Russell, M. Ferguson), the level of hopelessness – Hopelessness Scale, Beck et al., the level of social intelligence – Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, the level of aggression – Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, hardiness – Hardiness Survey (S. Maddi). The methods of mathematical statistics used in the research (descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyzes) are implemented by means of the IBM SPSS Statistics 19 package. Results. It has been proven that the resources of adolescents’ psychological safety in the educational environment are: values, psychological well-being, social intelligence, hardiness and a low level of aggressiveness. The state of psychological safety is influenced by such manifestations as conformity and following traditions, a positive image of the future, the experience of community with other people, the ability to understand and predict other people’s feelings and behavior, a sense of involvement in life events. Discussion and Conclusion. The article is of interest for researchers of psychological safety problems in education, practical psychologists and specialists of the education system for the evidence of prevention programs and ensuring the safety of the educational environment and its participants.


2021 ◽  
pp. 179-185

Modern processes of globalization in some way shake the established notions of human rights, and therefore their interpretation and content may be limited or expanded contrary to the regulations of the highest legal force. This creates conflict not only in the legal field, but also in society as a whole. It is emphasized that the most effective and less conflicting will be the norm, the content of which fully reflects both public and individual interest, the norm, in the process of interpretation and implementation of which the social value of law is achieved. What does it mean? That the right in the understanding of the official expression of norms should be only those provisions that ensure the well-being and development at the level of personal and public interest, guarantee and do not violate human rights. It is noted that the value of the right for the individual is that it is able to meet the human need for freedom and establishes a certain order of its use. The value of law for the whole society is manifested in the fact that the law guarantees security, order and harmonization of social relations, integrity and solidarity of society. Human rights and freedoms in the state, its interests should not be opposed to the rights and freedoms of others. At the same time, along with universally recognized human rights and freedoms, there are generally recognized restrictions on most of them. This raises the question of the objectively determined need to define boundaries and their criteria in the process of exercising one’s rights and freedoms. An analysis of legal practice in the context of finding a balance of public and private interest on the example of the constitutional right to education. The conclusion is that education is both a constitutional right and a duty and is not subject to any restrictions, and the state must ensure that education is accessible to all. In the process of ensuring the public interest, the state should apply permissible legal mechanisms to motivate a person to implement certain norms, such as persuasion, not coercion, encouragement, not the threat of punishment. Otherwise, it will lead to discrimination in the exercise of the rights and opportunities provided by the Constitution and the freedom to exercise them. And the establishment of the necessary restrictions provided by international legal instruments must be based on the principles of necessity, justice, legality, equality of rights and freedoms. Keywords: human rights, right to education, discrimination, equality, public interest.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward G. J. Stevenson ◽  
Lucie Buffavand

Abstract:This article investigates food security and well-being in the context of “development-forced displacement” in Ethiopia. In the lower Omo, a large hydroelectric dam and plantation schemes have forced people to cede communal lands to the state and business speculators, and indigenous communities have been targeted for resettlement in new consolidated villages. The authors carried out a food access survey in new villages and in communities not yet subjected to villagization and complemented this with ethnographic research carried out over a period of four years. The results of the two methodological approaches were inconsistent. The survey data suggest that household food access was poor in both places but better in villagization sites than in the other communities. The ethnographic research, however, suggests that village settlers were unable to feed themselves from the irrigated plots they were allotted and were therefore dependent on food aid. They spoke of indignity, bodily discomfort, and the severance of meaningful social relations. This article discusses the contrast between the information generated by the different research methods and asks how this tension relates to two major narratives about development: development as a process through which the state actualizes a national dream, and development as a process that creates affluence for some by impoverishing others.


2020 ◽  
pp. 64-78
Author(s):  
F Stuart Chapin

All people need similar things to ensure a happy and satisfying life. This chapter describes how these needs can be sustained today and for future generations. Immediate human needs include food and water, safety and health, love and belonging through social relationships, self-esteem and respect from others, and capacity to address broad spiritual and societal goals. Surprisingly, among people who live above the poverty line, wealth and material possessions are usually less important to life satisfaction than are these other elements. Instead, values that shape people’s goals, education, cultural and social rules that sustain social relationships, environmental and human health, and technology and economy are the most important foundations for long-term empowerment and well-being. International aid has substantially improved people’s material conditions in poor countries but has done less to improve social relations and empowerment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Raden Aji Haqqi

The Kingdom of Brunei Darussalam is a country that makes Islam as the official religion of the State and Islamic law as a state administration system. This paper describes what forms of institutionalization of Islamic law in various aspects of national and state life in Brunei Darussalam and its role as a unifying force, peacekeeper, and state harmony, and the prosperity of the people. On the foundation of the ideology of the Malay Islamic Beraja (MIB) the establishment of Islamic law in the administration of state, government, and community life has begun since Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has been named as Sultan until now. Various laws and regulations based on Islamic law governing various aspects of life have been produced and applied. All of this boils down to the goal of establishing the state of Baldatun Tayyibatun Wa Rabbun Ghafur or the State of Zikir (Remembrance) that produces prosperity in the world and the hereafter. The use of Islamic law in Brunei has been relatively beneficial for both aspects of order and structuring aspects of state and government as well as peace and well-being of the people.


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