Programme - AGen

Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations

Featured Presentation: Dr James W. McNally

Recent health emergencies such as the ebola outbreak in 2015 and the current zika virus reflects the pressing need for the rapid and statistically meaningful collection of data, often within small geographic areas. The collection of public health data at the community level is challenging for a number of reasons. Building respondent trust and gaining local support are key, but even when these barriers are overcome the choice of questions and how they are asked is central to the success of a study and to its impact on health improvements and policy change. One of the common problems found in many community level studies is the lack of comparability and the inability to generalize findings beyond the study area. While interesting and useful information is often obtained, translating this information into a framework that facilitates policy impact often proves difficult due to a lack of comparability. The NACDA Program on Aging has been promoting a methodology for overcoming the challenges of generalizability and comparability that has been successfully employed in several small area studies of public health and healthcare unitization. The presentation will describe this methodology and provide examples of its efficacy in real-world research situations. The presentation will provide supporting materials to guide interested users in applying this approach for their own research specializations. This approach is flexible and works across languages and research disciplines so it can be applied in a variety of public health studies, including RAPID AREA ANALYSIS (RAP) situations.

*A complementary presentation was held on the same theme at the Hawaii Conference Series 2017 in Honolulu, USA.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia

Featured Panel Presentation: Dr James W. McNally & Professor Hiroshi Ishida

Featured Panel Chairs: Dr James W. McNally & Professor Hiroshi Ishida

How any society deals with aging can be a contentious issue, one on which questions of culture, convenience and even expedience are brought to bear. Economic prosperity and peace in developed countries has lead to unprecedented levels of healthcare provision for a population that, as a result, is living far longer. Coupled with falling birthrates, Western Europe and Japan are witnessing demographic changes that bring unparalleled challenges but also unexpected opportunities for aging populations, as innovations and discoveries help people lead active and healthy lives.

This panel will provide an overview of the demographic situation in different countries and cultures in Asia and beyond to compare and contrast outlooks for the aged. It will also examine the concepts of healthy, active and beautiful aging.

*A complementary panel will be held on the same theme at the European Conference Series 2017 in Brighton, UK.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Establishing a Value Mindset

Featured Presentation: Dr Philip Sugai

The concept of value has been at the heart of the definition of marketing for more than a decade. Yet, while assessment models do exist for specific stakeholder or value actors (i.e. Woodruff, 1997; Kim & Park, 2002) or a combination of these such as the Triple Bottom Line (c.f. Elkinton, 1997), none of the existing aggregate models are complete in terms of assessing the value impact of all value actors identified within the current definition of marketing by the AMA, which includes customers, clients, partners and society. Additionally, most of the existing measurement tools use different criteria to measure value, making a combination of these in their current form extremely difficult if not impossible for any marketing practitioner. This has led to the current dilemma in the field of marketing, in that researchers and practitioners understand theoretically what marketing "is", but have not yet formulated a robust model or tool that enables them to effectively measure and capture the true value impact of any product or service today. The purpose of this presentation is to outline the definition of marketing value and outline a path forward towards the creation of an aggregate model for value measurement and management that can be easily applied by any business or government entity.

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East Meets West

Featured Panel Presentation: Professor Haruko Satoh & Dr Toshiya Hoshino

In the new century, there are many complex challenges facing all of humanity, from tangible concerns such as healthcare, poverty, climate change, food and energy security to conflict prevention, as well as problems of how to address these issues at the global as well as local level. In such a global endeavour, synergy of knowledge and wisdom between different traditions, communities and civilisations is as important as ever in coming up with better solutions. And Kobe could not be a more fitting place in Japan for a start of an important dialogue. Why is this?

Kobe, the host city of the conference, is celebrating 150 years since it opened its doors to the world in 1867, one year before the Meiji Restoration. Kobe has since become one of the leading Asian ports for trade alongside Shanghai, making its name in the early twentieth century as the international face of a modernizing Japan in a regional setting of Kansai that is both historical, innovative and outward-looking. It has one of the oldest Chinese and Indian communities in Japan because of this history, and has been home to many European and Russian (Jewish) émigrés. It has overcome the crippling destruction of its centre and port facilities in the 1995 Kobe-Awaji earthquake.

But there is more. If there is one place in Japan that represents the theme of this conference, “East meets West”, then it is Kobe and the Kansai area, 500 km east of Tokyo and Kanto, that is home to Kyoto, Osaka and Sakai. Kansai represents the inherent strength (sokojikara) of Japan as the vortex of the country’s cultural, political and commercial activities for nearly 13 centuries. In the old days, Kyoto and the older capital Nara were repositories of the religion, knowledge, technology and civilization that reached Japan by way of the Silk Road. In more recent times, Sakai, one of the oldest port cities near Osaka and the birthplace of Senno Rikyu, the grand tea master, traded with the Spanish and Portuguese. Sakai was the main manufacturer of guns in sixteenth-century Japan. Osaka has been the biggest commerce centre since Edo period Japan, pioneering in futures trade and giving birth to many large trading houses that would provide the social capital for rapid industrialization in the Meiji era. Even though the capital has moved to Tokyo, Kansai continues to flourish in this rich cultural heritage and tradition of innovative thinking, as a place where the East mingles with the West over time and space in ways that Tokyo cannot match.

The symbolism of Kobe and Kansai is important to Japanese identity as it faces its own post-industrial challenges since the economic slump. The key to Japan’s renovation and continued relevance to the world is to rediscover and reappraise our own history of modernization with a view to opening up to and engaging with the world in a more dynamic way.

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Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences

Spotlight Presentation: Dr Maxime Jaffré

Since the birth of Social Sciences, survey methodologies have encountered increasing developments in collecting data. From the “Essay on the Theory of Science” by Max Weber, to the Rules of the Sociological Method by Emile Durkheim, sociological and anthropological rules and know-hows successfully developed strong methodological principles that have proved their worth over time. Today, it seems to be quite difficult to revert these principles and change the methodological rules implemented by Social Sciences. Yet, the new digital technologies and the cultural practices generated by them are nowadays creating a serious imbalance for the survey methodologies developed by Social Sciences. While Social Sciences advocate "field" surveys conducted as close as possible to individuals, how can researchers collect data from digital cultural practices that are produced, in any case, from the private sphere? And how can socio-economic characteristics of individuals be defined when most of our practices are becoming digitalised? In other words, Social Sciences are today running the real risk of losing contact with the most contemporary cultural practices if they refuse to change methodological paradigm. In recent years, new technologies have encountered real progress in data extraction and analysis. New software such as EthnosData and Net-Survey now allow researchers to practice data mining on the Internet and collect quite considerable and unprecedented amounts of data for research in Social Sciences. These new tools represent a real added value for the analysis of digital practices or for carrying out surveys via the Internet. By combining methodologies implemented by Social Sciences and new technologies, this paper aims to present innovative statistical and cartographic methodologies involving Small and Big Data analyses applied to research in Social Sciences.

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Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima’s Nuclear Refugees

The complex human and natural disaster – earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown – that occurred on March 11–13, 2011, caused the evacuation of 180,000 residents of Fukushima prefecture, Japan. Today, more than 80,000 compulsory and voluntary evacuees remain outside their original communities. For some of the original 11 affected communities the evacuation order has been lifted after extensive decontamination efforts, and residents are being urged to return. Yet despite government privileging of rapid repatriation, as of January 2017 only 13% of the evacuees have returned to the five communities where evacuation orders have been lifted. Although residents are assured that health risks of repatriation are negligible, expressed concerns about health and safety issues and economic and social community sustainability, along with eroded public trust in official assurances, have contributed to few returning, especially young families. Few studies have been published examining the long-term economic, social and policy implications of the Fukushima evacuation experience and future prospects for repatriation. Drawing on interviews with compulsory and voluntary evacuees and focus group discussions with evacuees who have already returned to original communities, this paper applies a rights-based framework to discuss repatriation and engagement in re-articulation of long-fragmented communities.

Image | Fukushima Prefectural Flag

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Xinhua News Agency’s Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China’s National Identity

Spotlight Presentation: Dr Guo-qiang Liu

Through a comparative framing analysis of print media coverage of the Kunming Railway Station incident in March 2014, this article examines the Chinese state media’s attempted projection of a “new” China to the outside world. This projection is occurring in the context of the nation’s changing international status as the result of its rapid economic rise. It is observed that by calling this incident a terror attack, and even “China’s 9/11”, and by reporting condemnations and condolences from other countries, China clearly identifies itself as a victim of terror and expresses a strong wish to be recognised as a member of the mainstream international community. It is argued that Xinhua’s projection of China in its coverage reflects a new national identity that China is trying to develop, while legitimising its crackdown on Uyghur “terrorists”. However, the comparison with elite media sources in the West shows that Western governments and media may be reluctant to embrace China fully as a new member of the “international community”. While the Chinese government attempted to use the incident as a way of leveraging its position and status within the “international community”, and Xinhua supported this aim, the Western media appears to have quickly forgotten the incident and seems not to have supported China’s claims.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

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