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Humans and Devices in Medical Contexts
This book explores the ways in which socio-technical settings in medical contexts find varying articulations in a specific locale. Focusing on Japan, it consists of nine case studies on topics concerning: experiences with radiation in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima; patient security, end-of-life and high-tech medicine in hospitals; innovation and diffusion of medical technology; and the engineering and evaluating of novel devices in clinical trials. The individual chapters situate humans and devices in medical settings in their given semantic, pragmatic, institutional and historical context. A highly interdisciplinary approach offers deep insights beyond the manifold findings of each case study, thereby enriching academic discussions on socio-technical settings in medical contexts amongst affiliated disciplines. This volume will be of broad interest to scholars, practitioners, policy makers and students from various disciplines, including Science and Technology Studies (STS), medical humanities, social sciences, ethics and law, business and innovation studies, as well as biomedical engineering, medicine and public health.
Robo Sapiens Japanicus
Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots—humanoids, androids, and animaloids—are “imagineered” in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether “civil rights” should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the “normal” body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley.
Enacting Culture
The Japanese theater scene is characterized by the vibrant coexistence of diverse forms of theater. Alongside well-known classical theater traditions, a stunningly modern scene exists, with an immeasurable number of small theaters. By focusing on the historical and contemporary contexts of how theater culture is enacted, this collection brings together essays on the spectrum of theater in Japan. Through literary and performance analyses and original case studies the collection explores complementary and interdisciplinary aspects of Japan’s performing arts. In an important and unique contribution, this volume includes essays by Japanese and Western scholars written in a mix of English and Japanese. Abstracts of each contribution translated into the opposite language allow readers without knowledge of both languages access to the main ideas of the essays.
Networks and Mobilization Processes: The Case of the Japanese Anti-Nuclear Movement after Fukushima
Environmental disasters or other large-scale disruptive events often trigger the emergence of social movements demanding social and/or political change. This study investigates mobilization processes at the meso level of the Japanese anti-nuclear movement after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami waves on March 11, 2011. To capture such meso level movement dynamics – which so far have played only a minor role in research on social movement mobilization – the study presents an analytical model based on premises from political process theory, network theory, and relational sociology. This model i...
Medtech
This book offers an analysis of the dynamics of the global medical device (medtech) industry from the 1960s until the present, using the approaches of business history and industry studies. While most of the publications in the corresponding field have focused on particular countries/regions or actors, this research is unique in its scope. First, it explores the formation and development of medtech business both globally and in the major countries engaged in this industry (the United States, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, France, and China). Second, it tackles a broad range of actors and organizations, from individual entrepreneurs, medical doctors, and engineers to small family firms, start-ups, and large multinationals, as well as universities and research centers. Hence, for the first time, this book both provides a general understanding of the formation and transformation of the medtech industry throughout the world and sheds light on the main features of a fast-growing business in the twenty-first century. This book will be of value to historians, industry professionals, and analysts.
Adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility by Japanese Companies
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a topical issue in many countries. What are the drivers for the global spread of explicit CSR – practices that are demonstrated to the outside – even in countries where companies had addressed CSR implicitly? What catalyzes organizations to adopt CSR and how does their adoption influence other companies’ likelihood to adopt CSR? This book approaches the recent world-wide adoption of CSR practices as part of the global spread of management concepts. The trend to adopt CSR is examined among Japanese companies, because they have rapidly adopted CSR practices in the last two decades. Existing empirical research on CSR in Japan that has focused mainly on anecdotal evidence on a small number of outstanding companies is extended by employing both qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods. Analyzing drivers for the adoption of CSR practices, organizational characteristics of adopting companies, and how increasing adoption influences the likelihood to adopt provides insights into how Japanese institutions and stakeholders facilitated rapid CSR adoption and the process of CSR diffusion.
Parental well-being
"Pursuing happiness is not only idealistic, it is the world's best and perhaps only hope to avoid global catastrophe" (Global Happiness Policy Report 2018). With that, the report argues for happiness as overarching policy goal. This volume argues that parental well-being is well qualified to assume a central role for governments of industrially advanced nations that are in need of coping with the challenges of low fertility and societal aging. More than 4000 mothers and fathers of young children in Germany and Japan have been surveyed in regard to their well-being and satisfaction with many aspects related to their work and family lives. The volume brings together 13 scholars to analyze this...
Cross-Cultural Influences between Japanese and American Pop Cultures
This collection features examinations of popular culture, including manga, music, film, cosplay, and literature, among other topics. Using interdisciplinary sources and analyses, this collection adds to the global discussion and relevancy of Japanese popular culture. This collection serves to highlight the work of multidisciplinary scholars who offer fresh perspectives of ongoing cross-cultural and cyclical influences that are commonly found between the US and Japan. Notably, this collection considers the relationships that have influenced Japanese popular culture, and how this has, in turn, influenced the Western world.
Japan’s New Ruralities
Seeking to challenge negative perceptions within Japanese media and politics on the future of the countryside, the contributors to this book present a counterargument to the inevitable demise of rural society. Contrary to the dominant argument, which holds outmigration and demographic hyper-aging as primarily responsible for rural decline, this book highlights the spatial dimension of power differences behind uneven development in contemporary Japan. Including many fi eldwork-based case studies, the chapters discuss topics such as corporate farming, local energy systems and public healthcare, examining the constraints and possibilities of rural self-determination under the centripetal impact...
Biolust, Brain Death, and the Battle Over Organ Transplants
William LaFleur (1936-2010), an eminent scholar of Japanese studies, left behind a substantial number of influential publications, as well as several unpublished works. The most significant of these examines debates concerning the practice of organ transplantation in Japan and the United States, and is published here for the first time. This provocative book challenges the North American medical and bioethical consensus that considers the transplantation of organs from brain dead donors as an unalloyed good. It joins a growing chorus of voices that question the assumption that brain death can be equated facilely with death. It provides a deep investigation of debates in Japan, introducing nu...
