29 research outputs found
Reluctant Intimacies. Japanese Eldercare in Indonesian Hands
The thesis explores the tensions in Japan between national ideologies of cultural homogeneity and the demographic and economic realities which increasingly point to the unavoidability of immigration. Based on ethnographic research in Japan and Indonesia, the thesis looks at the formation of relationships between the Japanese personnel, the employers, the cared-for elderly, and the Indonesian care workers employed in Japanese eldercare institutions under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) initially implemented in 2008. While primarily focusing on the negotiation of relationships at an interpersonal level, the thesis also considers the intersections between the ageing of society and the Japanese discourses of nationhood. Shifting between these scales of observation, the project discusses the interplay between the bodily, interpersonal, and cultural intimacies. It examines how they are formed, maintained, negated, negotiated, and lost. In doing so, it emphasises the saliency of essentialising cultural representations. However, the research reveals that these become paralleled by identifications based on other, non-cultural areas of immediate experience. Thus, the thesis shifts the emphasis away from (but does not completely abandon) the ethnic or national underpinnings of the migration processes as a lived experience for migrants and hosts alike. Following the politicoâeconomic background of the Indonesian workersâ presence in Japan and the introduction of the idea of culture laid out in the vocabulary of intimacy, the consecutive chapters focus on different sets of relationships forged by the Indonesian workers. The thesis concludes with the discussion of media representations and a suggestion that the âseedingâ of foreign workers and residents within local communities in Japan constitutes the arena in which cross-cultural intimacies emerge
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The subjective well-being political paradox: Evidence from Latin America
The subjective well-being political paradox describes the observation that individuals are on average more satisfied with their lives in welfare states than under right-leaning (conservative) governments, which are less likely to promote welfare policies; however, at the individual level, people who identify as leaning politically more to the right show higher levels of life satisfaction than those who describe themselves as leaning to the left. This subjective well-being political paradox has previously been observed in Europe. The present study investigates whether this paradox can also be found across 18 Latin American countries by using data from 9 waves of the LatinobarĂłmetro survey. In addition to life satisfaction, we further consider respondentsâ self-rated ability to meet their financial needs in a satisfactory manner, which can be seen as a proxy for satisfaction with income. Latin America is an interesting region to study this question because of its political history and the emergence of left-leaning governments during the last fifteen years. We find that people report higher life satisfaction and a better ability to meet their financial needs under left-leaning governments compared to centre and right-leaning governments. In contrast, conservative individuals report higher financial and overall well-being than liberal individuals, which confirms the subjective well-being political paradox that was also found in Europe. Our analysis includes controls for macroeconomic indicators, such as inflation and unemployment rates and GDP per capita as well as socio-demographic factors
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Construction and installation summary for fiscal year 1992 of the hydraulic head monitoring stations at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
During FY 1992, as part of the Hydraulic Head Monitoring Station (HHMS) Project, three multiport wells (HHMS 12, 13, and 14) were constructed along or near the boundaries of Waste Area Grouping (WAG) 2 at Haw Ridge water gap. The purpose of this report is to document well construction and multiport component installation activities. The hydraulic head monitoring stations (HHMS) are well clusters and single multiport wells that provide data required for evaluation of the transition between shallow and deep groundwater systems and of the nature of these systems. This information is used for required characterization of the hydrologic framework as dictated by state and federal regulatory agencies. Groundwater contaminants may move laterally across WAG boundaries or offsite; they may also move in a vertical direction. Because the HHMS Project was designed to address otential contamination problems, the project provides a means for defining the bounds of the uppermost aquifer; identifying potential pathways for offsite contamination for shallow; intermediate, and deep groundwater flow; and evaluating the capacity for contaminant transport in intermediate and deep groundwater flow systems