This research is aimed at finding possible connections between the living/working environment and social relations and sexuality.
More specifically this research extend some studies which started back in the 70s by adding the social/relationship aspect in studying connections with the living environment. Sexuality is also included and an important part of this study in relation with the so-called "sexless phenomenon" which started being studied in Japan from the 90s. This research focus specifically on large urban centers which have a significant change in population density between the central and peripheral area, while also including the cultural aspect accounted for through international comparison.
The study is focusing on three linguistic areas (German, Italian and Japanese) and five countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland) with a particular attention to large urban areas located within them. In the specific, 5 cities will be given particular attention (Cologne, Milan, Tokyo, Vienna, Zurich) while also considering other cities and rural areas relative to random respondents.
This work is partially financed by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant number 20K14992).
Coordinator and Italian translation: Claudio Feliciani (The University of Tokyo)
Contact: feliciani@jamology.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Current position: Associate professor, PhD
Claudio has a background on engineering but has increasingly been working in the field of social science with a particular interest on the connection between humans and the environment. His main topic of research is pedestrian traffic and crowd dynamics and has authored or coauthored more than 30 journal paper and proceedings for international conferences.
Sexuality/Relationship and Japanese/German translation: Alice Pacher (Meiji University)
Contact: pacher@meiji.ac.jp
Current position: Assistant professor, PhD
Alice's research focuses on couple relationships (married and unmarried) in contemporary times with a particular emphasis on sexual behavior and sexual consciousness. Using a sociological perspective, her work has uncovered novel insights into the sexless phenomenon and extramarital affairs in contemporary Japan. Prof. Pacher also studies cross-cultural sexuality with a special emphasis on comparisons of Austrian, German and Japanese sexual awareness.
Environmental studies and designer/illustrator: Karri Flinkman (The University of Tokyo)
Contact: karri.flinkman@cd.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Current position: PdD candidate
Karri Flinkman graduated from Aalto University, program of Landscape Architecture majoring in Urban Planning. With a vivid interest in culture and societal mechanics, Flinkman now pursues a PhD in University of Tokyo, his main topic of research being the relationship between culture and population dynamics.
Social psychology and senior advisor: Andrea Gorrini (The University of Tokyo and Systematica Srl)
Contact: gorrini@jamology.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Current position: Psychologist and consultant, PhD
Andrea is a psychologist working as Transport Research Consultant at Systematica Srl (Italy). He is specialized in environmental psychology, focusing on human behaviour in transport systems, pedestrian crowd dynamics and walkability. He is truly interested in studying the impact of social density on human behaviour through GIS-Geographic Information Systems, questionnaires and statistics.
In this work Andrea is working as an independent under the Cooperative Research Fellow position of The University of Tokyo.
Urban planning and senior advisor: Hideki Koizumi (The University of Tokyo)
Contact: hide@cd.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Current position: Full professor, PhD
Prof. Koizumi leads a laboratory comprising several researchers and students focusing on city planning and architecture. His work is not limited to the development of theories, but also involves the crafting of methodologies for co-creative community designing, planning and management, which can be later applied to actual projects. His research areas are place based planning and management, participatory design, participatory democracy, communication design, public realm design, smart community and active and sports friendly community design.
We are going to analyze answers from the participants and combine them with geographical data of the relative cities/regions obtained through public databases (so-called GIS: Geographical Information System).
The questionnaire itself is divided into two parts. In the first part we will collect answers from specific questions relative to demographic information, living and working environment and relationships/sexuality. In a second part we are going to analyze feeling and thoughts in relation to pictures provided.
To reduce the questions regarding the living/working environment and combine both subjective and objective information we will also collect postcode and later use them in the frame of a GIS analysis. In the specific, a GIS approach is needed to understand the relation between objective features of the living environment (amount of green areas, health facilities, recreational facilities...) and subjective features obtained through the answer of the participant. GIS information will be retrieved from public database on city planning and population demographic.
A numerical statistical analysis will be performed by finding numerical correlations between social/psychological traits and environmental features along with a more classical approach based on the analysts of open answers provided by participants in the image section.
A part of the section sexuality and partnership is from the survey "The Multinational Comparative Analysis in Sexuality of Young Adults", contributed by Hirayama M.,Skowronski D.P., Pacher A. (2019:2020).
This questionnaire was approved from the ethical committee of "The University of Tokyo" which authorized its distribution.
All information collected in this questionnaire are anonymous and will be only used by the members of this project only for the research scope relative to this project.
You can leave this questionnaire at any moment if you do not want to keep answering and your answers will not be stored unless you click the "Submit" button at the end. Results of this research will be only presented as collective information and we will never make single answers publicly available. If you have any doubt regarding confidentiality or want to ask more specific questions about this research/questionnaire, feel free to contact any of the persons given above.
Please note that this being an international study, laws in regard to privacy protection change by country to country, but the collection method employed here is in agreement with all the countries involved. If you are not sure that your country data handling in regard to your country regulations feel free to contact us.
To ensure both your privacy and fulfill legal and ethical requirements in regard to scientific publishing your data will be stored in different ways for different period of time. Soon after pressing the "Submit" button your answers will be anonymously stored in a password protected online storage cloud (Google Drive for instance) and shared only between the members of this project for a maximum length of 3 (three) years. After that time a single copy will be kept offline (in a CD or a dedicated USB disk) and safely stored by the responsible of this project for a minimum time of 10 (ten) years. Please note that this is required by university regulations to ensure that validity of scientific research and publication can be verified if problems will arise in relation to published scientific results.
At the end of the questionnaire you will have the possibility to provide your e-mail address should you want to get some updates on the results of this research. Important: the e-mail address is not part of the questionnaire itself, is not mandatory and will be only used to inform you on the results if you want to. Also, e-mail addresses will be stored separately from answers to ensure that nobody will be able to associate your e-mail address with your answers.
Should you want your answers to be removed in the future you can contact us and we will remove them. You have the right to get your data removed at any time or you may also opt for having your data not used for the study for any reason. In short: the answers you are providing in this questionnaire are yours and we are simply analyzing them for scientific research. Should you change your mind for any reasons we will be willing to fulfill your requests.