Research Topics

• Formation of an ecological urban design addressing climate change and its global network: Circulation and interaction of innovations in Thailand, Japan, and the Holland.
• Cultural imagination of the future and anthropological research on innovation
• Anthropological research on the relationship between magic and science, and international cooperation

Science and technology have become critical elements that influence our contemporary living. This research area questions the conventional image of science and technology that conceptualizes them as universal knowledge unaffected by time and conducts research that reveal the geographically and historically changing relationships between society/culture and technology using anthropological methods. In such research, we focused on the specific activities and practices (praxis) of those involved in the development and use of science and technology. That is, by focusing on the tools used in activities and practices, the space in which those practices take place, and the social relations among people, our research attempts to bring into view the specificity of the two-way process in which culture influences science and science influences culture.
Science and technology are intimately related to the “future” of humans. We have predicted the future through science and relied on new technology to change the society and shape a new future. In the “Science, Technology, and Culture” track, our research also focuses on the ways that the cultural imagination of the future is linked to actual development of science and technology. The education and research activities of this track are conducted in collaboration with the “Anthropology” research track.