Asian Journal of Social Science最新文献

This study explores the attachment to hometown among nonmetropolitan youths in postgrowth Japan. The existing literature suggests that they feel attached to their hometowns due to intimate bonds with their families and friends or easy access to shopping and leisure facilities, even amid uncertain employment prospects. However, these observations often assume that those remaining in the provinces have lower academic attainment and a lack of motivation to seek better opportunities in urban centers. In contrast, this study, conducted through online interviews with 22 Japanese youths graduating from prestigious universities in Kyushu, examines their willingness to find stable employment and their decision to remain in their hometowns. Through an examination of their educational and career transitions and exploring their social networks, this study demonstrates that this phenomenon of remaining in rural hometowns reflects emerging cultural and societal attitudes shaped by the prolonged recession and tremendous disasters that impact their residential preferences.

In times of crisis, activating public collective consciousness is crucial. Applying national identity aids in building this consciousness, enhancing social identity, fostering social solidarity, and motivating a joint “state-society” response. Traditional top-down approaches to national identity, relying on symbols and rituals rooted in collective memory, may falter during crises due to formalism. Micro-social interactions, aligned with governance, construct relevant meanings through interaction rituals. Participation in these rituals energizes individuals, shaping national identity and fostering social unity. However, limited research explores this bottom-up approach. Integrating interaction ritual chain theory, this study examines shaping national identity from the bottom up. It concludes that symbolic meanings from governance behavior, social norms, and group identity through interaction rituals yield national symbols, consensus order, and emotional responses. Ultimately, interaction rituals mobilize emotions and reconstruct social order. This study's conclusion holds reference value for enhancing the government's meaning making and enriching interaction ritual chain theory.

Research has promoted the value of international internships for university students as an alternative to study abroad programs. Yet, little was known about how individual identities shaped student interns’ interactions with people from other cultures. The study examines how five college students from Taiwan, who worked as interns in Singapore and Thailand prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, navigated cultural similarities and differences while personally and socially constructing their identities in relation to others. This study explored the way in which interculturality is constructed in international internships and how that can be problematic because of interns’ limited awareness of hierarchical power dynamics, cultural gender role differences, and their roles as foreigners, and interns. Additionally, findings suggest that universities that engage their students in international internships must offer a preparatory curriculum for students to explore and prepare for the cross-cultural issues that may occur in an international internship programs.

This study focuses on foreign migrants who migrated to Japan in the 2000s to determine how their daily anxiety and discomfort relate to prejudice and discrimination. This study divided prejudice and discrimination in Japan into specific situations from the perspective of foreign migrants. Focus group interviews (FGI) were conducted with high-skilled migrants living in Japan. The thematic analysis produced examples of direct and indirect prejudice. Direct prejudice describes explicit and conscious exclusion. The codes identified in this study were institutional exclusion, social exclusion, and psychological exclusion. Indirect prejudice refers to an unpleasant feeling during communication, the cause of which cannot be instantaneously ascertained. The codes identified were distinction from the Japanese, forcing Japanese-style communication, and lack of understanding of other cultures. To clarify these ambiguities, this study was organized around the axes of direct and indirect prejudice against foreigners.

In numerous major Indonesian cities, the “Urban Salafism” movement has emerged as the most recent trend among the Muslim population. Urban Muslim youth's spiritual unease is at an all-time high due to their scepticism of mainstream Islamic organisations, most of which are becoming more politically oriented. As a result, Salafism has become more popular as an alternative. Salafism has been successful in recent years in massifying Islamic discourse on social media platforms such YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and even podcast sites. Furthermore, it has defined Islamic narratives in strategic urban locations such as the Central Business District, malls, and wealthier neighbourhoods to conjure the spirit of a new piety which urban Muslims are adopting more widely. With the ability to blend the pop culture of urban youth groups with the Islamic tradition of Arabism, urban Salafis are able to campaign for specific Islamic narratives and cultures in a hybrid style. Salafism was once thought of as an ideologically and culturally conservative movement, but it has now become a digital and modern native. Their ability to enlist urban celebrities, artists, content producers, filmmakers, and businesspeople who continue to engage in popular culture in a devout Salafi manner is evidence of all this. Based on the description provided above, this research will use a socio-anthropological method to further investigate the Urban Salafism issue in Indonesia.