Foreign Otherness in Japanese Media. Exploring the Japanese self through the images of Latin America

Foreign Otherness in Japanese Media analyzes contemporary Japanese society by examining the ways in which Japanese media portrays Latin America and therefore how Japanese readers construct their idea of it. Offering a detailed methodology and results from field research, and based on concepts such as otherness, cultivation analysis and the theory of the autopoietic social system as a framework, this book considers the impact of mass media on the construction of non-dominant foreign cultural subjectivities in Japan, and explores the dynamics of otherness in the country. As such, it is apt for scholars in Japanese studies, media studies, and anyone interested in the interaction between foreigners or Latin Americans and Japan, or in relations between mainstream society and minority groups.

Percepción de desigualdad económica y su influencia sobre la justificación de las diferencias de ingreso legítimas

This study analyzes the effect of information about economic inequality on the justification of wage inequality. Using a representative sample of the metropolitan area of Santiago, Chile (n=732), we implemented an experimental survey design to replicate the results reported by Kriss-Stella Trump (2017) for the context of Sweden and the United States about wage gap justification. Our results show that factual wage information does not impact the overall wage gap justification. However, we evidenced that information about wage inequality increases the justification of wage gaps according to high and low-status occupations, which is enhanced by the joint exposure to the condition that seeks to motivate the social system justification. The study's methodological limitations are discussed, along with the implications of the evidence for the substantive analysis of attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution.

Healthcare highways in your community

This abstract serves to introduce a 10 minute video in which I will discuss issues pertaining to the structure of the healthcare system in Quebec. At the same time I will review the concept of community within and around that system. The relationship and interplay between the two will be explored in the hope that the viewer might find resonance and meaning, and perhaps a springboard to further reflection and conversation. Many perceive a need for change in both the organizational systems as well as in the existing cultures within healthcare institutions, both in and outside of Quebec. Yet we often feel powerless to act. I will touch upon ideas on how we can make a difference using our individual influence to bring about the changes we seek. The concepts under discussion are abstract. In the hope of creating a greater degree of tangibility, I will offer a metaphor – namely the long-term detrimental effects brought about by the disruption, and in many cases destruction, of vibrant North American communities, caused by the building of highways straight through their hearts. I will suggest that though there may have been benefits to the society as a whole arising from the building of those highways, the adverse effects extended well beyond the individual communities involved. With this metaphor in mind, I will present the argument that the current structure of healthcare in Quebec, brought into effect in 2015, has resulted in over-bureaucratization and “decommunitization”, with a consequent diminution in the presence and role of culture, ultimately representing a loss for the community at large. Unintended deleterious societal effects arising from social system restructuring, are a phenomenon not unique to healthcare, nor to Quebec. It may take years for these consequences to become manifest, by which time they may prove difficult to reverse.

The pattern of play behaviors in white-headed langurs from 1 to 12 months old in limestone forests, southwest China

Play behavior is a significant trait of immature nonhuman primates (hereafter primates), which may play important roles in sensory, locomotor, socio-cognitive, and developmental processes in primates. It has been suggested that function of play is to practice and improve motor skills related to foraging, avoiding predation, attracting mates, raising offspring, and also is to strength social skills concerning to cementing friendly relationships and defraying aggression among individuals. From September 2009 to August 2010, we investigated play behaviors of 1-12-month-old white-headed langur (Trachypithecus leucocephalus) which is a critically endangered primate endemic to China. During this study, we recorded 4,421 play bouts and 1,302 minutes of play time of 7 infants in total. We found that infants had different play behavior patterns at different ages. Specifically, non-social play behaviors appeared at 1 month of age, social play behaviors at 2 months, and all types of social and non-social play behaviors at 3 months. The frequency and duration of non-social play peaked at 5 months and then decreased, while social play appeared at 2 months and gradually increased with age. Non-social play did not differ between the sexes, whereas social play showed sex specificity, with higher frequency and duration of social play in male infants than in female infants. In addition, male and female white-headed langur infants appeared to prefer the individuals of same sex as social playmates. In conclusion, we first reported the pattern of play behavior of a critically endangered langur aged 1 to 12 months though the sample size is small, our results suggest they may have the adaptation of play behaviors in ages and sexes, which may help them adapt to their habitat and social system.

MODELING OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM FOR TAJIK STUDENTS STUDYING IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Tajik students studying in the Russian Federation can be considered as a social system. Indeed, it is characterized by such universal (common to all social systems) characteristics as complex interrelation and interconitionality of internal processes, emergence, dynamics of social processes, and interconnection with outside environment. There are also a number of specific features of the social system of Tajik students studying at universities of the Russian Federation, namely as a social system. The application of a systematic approach, as well as the principles and concepts of management theory, makes it possible not only to formalize the very concept of the target asset (the social system of Tajik students studying in the Russian Federation), but also to describe its management system. Modeling of the target asset based on a set-theoretic approach was carried out for such difficult-to-formalize characteristics as personal data of Tajik students, data on their educational process, data on employment and obtaining additional professional skills, social and everyday nature data. For this purpose Boolean and linguistic variables are used in the work inter alia. The results obtained in the work of modeling the target asset (the social system of Tajik students studying in the Russian Federation) will subsequently describe not only the process of TS management, but also the specifics of monitoring the achievement of targets for the simulated management system.