Stages Of My Research Research Articles

Scholar, Witness, or Activist? The Lessons and Dilemmas of an AIDS Research Agenda

The study of AIDS, as a disease, a social problem, or, in my case, as a political phenomenon is necessarily difficult and invasive. Learning about AIDS requires invasion of the most private spheres of peoples' lives, involves watching people at their most vulnerable, and often requires becoming closely involved with people whose lives and circumstances are far away from the researcher's own comfort zone. As the title of this essay suggests, my research has led me to take on a variety of roles; first, in order to gather the information I sought and, later, because of the information I had gathered. Roughly speaking, these roles can be characterized with respect to the distance of the researcher from the subject matter. As a scholar, I endeavored, particularly in the early stages of my research, to hold myself apart from what I saw and to compare my findings against those of other researchers. However, as time moved on, I found myself increasingly playing two other roles, roles I have come to characterize as witness and activist. My efforts to lessen the distance between the subjects of my research and myself resulted from both practical and personal motivations. As a practical matter, like many other social scientists, I quickly discovered that I had far greater access to information—in the form of written documents, interviews, and observation opportunities—as an insider. Personally I found myself wanting to contribute what I could to help solve, or at least lessen the severity of, the problems unfolding all around me.As I have moved closer to the subjects of my research, and to the perspectives they hold, I have been forced to confront head-on a perennial dilemma of scholars: objectivity. How does one study an issue “objectively,” particularly when the issue is fraught with controversy? Does taking a side render future observations invalid? Is there some magic line between researcher and subject that is not to be crossed? If so, where is it?The findings presented below represent what I have discovered about interest organizing and political activism in the context of AIDS.

Restructuring Urban Space and Local Communities in Tokyo

This paper attempts to review the theoretical framework of the urban restructuring process proposed by M. Castells and D. Harvey, and to examine the effectiveness of their western theories through field survey of restructuring urban space and local communities in Tokyo.M. Castells and D. Harvey have explained the restructuring process of urban spaces focusing on the mechanism of capital accumulation, but their analytical concepts are different. Castells uses the concept of the Dual City. This concept means that residential segregation and segmentation of spaces do exist among classes according to whether they heve access to a high level of education and culture or not. Harvey uses the concept of Flexible Accumulation, which means almost all new societal systems have the aim of capital accumulation. Castells puts stress on a change of the social structure in the global cities, while on the other hand Harvey examines the urban space, focusing on the relationship between global cities and local communities.For research purposes, I picked two case study areas in downtown Tokyo. One is Misaki-cho where many residents own their own land and buildings, and the other is Kanda-Tsukasa-cho where almost all residents live on leased land. These two local communities are located near the heart of Tokyo, and they contain many small scale businesses. But the pattern of landownership and community history are completely different.The conclusions are as follows:1) The residential space in Tokyo has became more segregated and segmented by the occupation and income of the residents. So the concept of the Dual City is applicable to Tokyo to some extent. Also rapid increase of offices and big changes of land use in Tokyo have been a part of the urban process of Flexible Accumulation at the global level.During the 1980's, Tokyo was affected by the global changes in more or less the same way as New York and London.2) At the local community level, landowners in Misaki-cho rebuilt their own buildings before the bubble economy, so they could cope with the structural economic changes during the 1980's individually. On the contrary, in Kanda-Tsukasa-cho, rapid increase of land prices did force changes in the residential land use to offices. So, we may conclude that the global changes did not directly affect local changes, but the history, socio-economic characteristics and social relationship of the local communities was an influence upon the restructuring and transformation process of urban space.In the next stage of my research, I will try to make it clear how the local community responds to the huge global economic pressure and resists capital accumulation. This is none other than building a new theoretical framework to bridge the macro-global changes and micro-local changes of urban spaces.

Robot Choreography: The Paradox of Robot Motion

R obot choreography has been developed to explore an aesthetic dimension of robotic movement. Industrial robots can be programmed to move in a dancelike fashion, integrating art and technology [1]. The intention of this new medium is not to replace human choreography and human dance but rather to provide an alternative vehicle for artistic expression. Does a robot really dance or does it only appear to dance? This question has puzzled me since the early stages of my research on and exploration of choreography of robotic movement. Zeno's paradox has been useful for examining the concept of motion as a visual phenomenon.