Grant amount： \15080000 （ Direct Cost: \11600000 、 Indirect Cost： \3480000 ）

This study evolved from our idea of constructing a "codevelopment" system for the 21st century against the tide of globalization in which the problems of exclusion are increasingly frequent. It seeks to clarify the ways in which "wisdom for codevelopment" is lived and embodied in "frontier" territories in Europe, which themselves try to coexist while conflicting, merging, amalgamating, and intertwining with one another. Under such objectives, we conducted research and interviews in certain areas, regarding the autonomy and independence of such local areas, the global inter-cooperation among the communities, and the composite/complex/hybrid identities of the community residents, while employing such key concepts as "metamorphosis of the liminal territories."

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Grant amount： \13500000 （ Direct Cost: \13500000 ）

(1) This study evolves from our ideas of constructing the 21st century "codevelopment" system, against the increasingly frequent problems of exclusion in the tide of globalization. It seeks to clarify the modes of "wisdom" lived and embodied, for "codevelopment," in "frontier" areas in Europe, which coexist with while conflicting, merging, amalgamating, and intertwining with one another. Under such objectives, we conducted research and interviews in certain areas, regarding the autonomy and independence of local areas, global inter-cooperation among communities, and composite/complex/hybrid identities of community residents, using such key concepts as "codevelopment" and "socio-cultural islands."
(2) As a result of our series of research in Aland, Sardegna, Venezia Giulia, Istra (borderland among Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia), we have come up with a key concept of "metamorphosis of liminality/borderland (confine, cumfinis)."
(3) The concept of "liminality/borderland (confine, cumfinis)" here not only includes actual borders among countries but also suggests minute, "internal" borders such as cultural borders and mental borders. For example, Slovenian residents in Trieste who are mentally challenged are "those who embody and live with various levels of liminality," and Istra, Sardegna, and Aland are areas that are composed of "those who live liminal lives" in that they hold varieties of particular historical and social contexts. It has been our recognition that the wisdom accumulated in such local communities could significantly contribute to constructing "codevelopment" system.
(4) Through this comparative area study, we have come to recognize the various different modes of conflict, compound, intertwining, and interweave, which are found to be particular to each community and family, and their diverse ways of responding toward such "encounters." Upon recognizing this, we have come to see it as our new research task to answer the following questions, concerning people who live in border areas, in which the shifts in national borders, the mobility of people, and the "merging, intertwining, and interweaving" of cultures take place, and who live in "borderlands" such as islands that are open to sea: What socio-cultural conflicts do those residents face? How do they respond to such conflicts? How do they metamorphose themselves in their processes of responding? To answer such questions, we need to further investigate and refine our theories regarding "liminality/borderland (confine, cumfinis)."

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Grant type：Competitive

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Grant amount： \6000000 （ Direct Cost: \6000000 ）

The points of important findings in our research are as follows : (1) European Integration and Euro-Japan Relations-In both UK and France, localization of Japanese firms has been quite successful in general, and there were no serious cultural friction. In our view, this success is a result of the international superiority of production technology, not of a particular culture. Also, doubts still remain if the Japanese management can provide a model for Post-Fordism. (2) European Integration and Ethnic Conflicts-Recent changes in Northern Ireland issue cannot easily be related to European integration. As shown in recent appeal to Britishneess, the fear to lose sovereignty in the integration process has been growing in UK.But, here "sovereignty" means parliamental, not cultural one. In France, by granting the right to the difference, the Jacobinic State based on "Contractive Identity" has been forced to transform itself, and, in the crisis of identities, the reactionary populist nationalism has highten ethnic conflict. In this context, the future polity of EU (federation, confederation, or Jacobinization of Europe) is the most important practical matter. (3) European Integration and Migration Controls-Both UK and France suffer from dilemma. For UK it is comparatively easy to exclude illeagal migrants, as she has not signed on Schengen Treaty. But, Uk is under strong pressure to take more gererous actions on this matter, as 1997, returning Hong Kong to China, comes closer. By introducing the Pasquoi Laws, France has shifted from border control to residents control, which might cause renewed oppression of human rights against ethnic minorities in the name of "selection by skin color."

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