Asia Institute - Research Publications

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    Intercultural communication by non-native and native speakers of Japanese in text-based synchronous CMC.
    Takagi, A (ascilite, 2008)
    This study explores speech behaviour when non-native speakers of Japanese (NNSJ) and native speakers of Japanese (NSJ) exchange cultural information, specifically using text- based synchronous computer-mediated communication. This experimental study uses a scaffolding technique in which a Japanese language teacher is less present and NNSJ are left to communicate with NSJ within a restricted timeframe. This study demands their intercultural engagement, thus suggesting an outcome of intercultural relationship building. While the study examined participants’ speech behaviours – specifically, the key speech act of requesting – observed to be important for realising smooth intercultural relationships, it also highlighted attributes of available technologies useful in facilitating intercultural engagement. Since people from different cultural backgrounds have different perceptions of politeness reflected in their behaviour and language use, understanding how request strategies are used by NSJ could give NNSJ intercultural insights and skills in Japanese language and socio-cultural behaviour. CMC has been utilised in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), with students able to learn languages through a real-world context and access native speakers of the target language, beyond the classroom. CMC has been found to be an effective adopted ‘third place’ (Kramsch 1993) located at the intersection of the cultures the learner grew up with, and the cultures to which they are introduced. In the case of language use, technology allows NNSJ to record their conversations, and reflect on the language being used, thus gaining intercultural insights and skills; these could be transferable to other communication modes, whether computer-driven technology or face-to-face. It is intended that the findings of this study might shed light on the innovative enhancement of non-native Japanese speakers’ intercultural and socio-cultural competence through the use of text-based CMC.
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    Can Sustainability Knowledge-Action Platforms Advance Multi-level Sustainability Transitions?
    Bream-Macintosh, O ; Burnett, A ; Feldman, I ; Lamphere, J ; Reuter, T ; Vital, E (University of Barcelona / Zenodo, 2021-09-01)
    In an effort to share local knowledge and best practices, online sustainability knowledge-action platforms of various types have proliferated. We conducted a review of 42 online sustainability knowledge-action platforms, which we define as digital tools that seek to manage and organize (local) knowledge and activities to advance a sustainability agenda. This interdisciplinary paper analyzes the structure and functionality of existing sustainability platforms through a systematic coding process. The coding is based on a review of the key issues highlighted in three bodies of literature: i) localization of the SDGs, ii) digital platforms and iii) multi-level governance of sustainability transitions. Our analysis indicates that numerous online collaborative tools, while offering an array of resources, struggle to provide context-sensitivity and higher-level analysis of the trade-offs and synergies between different sustainability actions. Context sensitivity and systemic thinking are essential, however, to align local priorities with international priorities like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG localization adds another layer of complexity where multi-level governance, actor priorities and institutional logics may generate tensions as well as opportunities for intra- and cross-sectoral alignme
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    Bali Mula: An Introduction to Indigenous Highland Balinese History, Ritual and Social Organisation
    Reuter, T ; Chang-Hua, W (National Museum of Prehistory, 2018)
    More than fifty villages in the central highlands and along the northern coast of the island of Bali, Indonesia, share a common indigenous culture distinct from that of mainstream Balinese society. Based on ethnographic research conducted in 1993-94, and then regularly for shorter periods every year until now, this article looks at the ethnohistory of this Austronesian-speaking people, known as the Bali Mula or Bali Aga (meaning ‘original’ or ‘mountain Balinese’ respectively). The focus will be the ritual order of their regional domains and characteristic local village councils. Ritual relationships define these two major institutions of Bali Mula society according to a principle of seniority or, more precisely, precedence (‘proximity to origins’). Bali Mula social organisation is rather similar to that of Taiwanese indigenous people, shedding light on the historical process of cultural dispersion of the Austronesian peoples.
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    Unity in Diversity: Why we need to do justice to local characteristics and identities while also cultivating a sense of global citizenship
    Reuter, T ; Đurović, M (Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2018)
    We have been witnessing a massive nationalist reaction to globalisation in recent years, the reasons for which can be difficult to untangle. If intellectuals hastily come to the defence of the globalist position and demonise this opposite point of view, we only add to a general climate of hostility that is poisoning the prospects for rational public debate in many countries. Rather, our duty is to reveal what is really at stake in this struggle, to identify the forces that are at play, and to make proposals for how to address the underlying problems associated with ‘real-existing globalisation.’ In short, we need to present the public with alternatives superior to those offered by a legion of democracy-, journalism- and science-bashing right-wing demagogues.
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    The Political Economy of Open Government
    Rosser, A (Faculty of Social and Political Science, Airlangga University, 2017)
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    The development of multifunctional learning environment for reading Japanese.
    TOYODA, E ; Matsushita, T ; Halpern, J (CASTEL, 2015)
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    Using video sharing for learning Japanese based on Community of Inquiry
    TOYODA, E ; Harrison, R (National University of, 2014)
    This paper reports on a collaborative project using online blended learning based on Community of Inquiry. Undergraduate students in Australia created videos, on contemporary issues in Japan, and uploaded them on YouTube, where they were commented on by postgraduate trainee teachers in Japan. The results of a data analysis using Community of Inquiry framework showed that, on one hand, the Melbourne students were mostly positive about opportunities to interact with students in Japan. On the other hand, the Kobe students, although recognizing the benefits of blended learning, were critical of the project in terms of issues related to their own feedback and over the project management. Thus, the CoI analysis, when it was conducted in separate settings, revealed that the two groups of participants in the same project perceived it very differently, and allowed us to see the issues across the project as a whole. We suggest that the CoI framework needs to be modified, if it is used to evaluate collaborative blended learning that involves more than one learning environment.
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    From Borneo to Bantu: how the Malagasy third person genitive pronoun *-ni may have become a locative suffix in Swahili
    ADELAAR, K (Institute of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2015)
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    Global Talent on the Move: Multiple Migrations of Self-Initiated Expatriates in Asia
    OISHI, N ; Petray, P ; Stephens, A (The Australian Sociological Association, 2015-11-23)