[Research Colloquium]
East Asian Holism and Cultural Dimension of the Pandemic in the Anthropocene
| Date & Time: | Monday, 13th December, 2021, 16:45-19:00(JST) / 8:45-11:00(CET) |
| Venue: | On Line (Zoom) |
| Organized: | Research Project "East Asian Holism and Cultural Dimension of the Pandemic in the Anthropocene"(P.I.: Masahiro Terada) supported by the RIHN D-G's Budget Research on COVID-19 Problems, 2021. |
| Co-organizer: | Joint Research Project “‘Fudo’-nization of Advanced technology: How to imagine plausible future of human-computer interdependency” (PI: Terukazu Kumazawa, RIHN) supported by Toyota Foundation Research Grant “Co-production of New Society by Humanity and Advanced Technology” |
| Language: | English |
| Aim: | If we think that the Anthropocene began with the 'great acceleration' in the mid twentieth century, COVID-19 is the first pandemic which happened in the epoch of such a geological time duration. This phenomenon is called as 'COVID-19' or 'Corona pandemic' in the English speaking sphere with relative neutral and scientific nuances, whereas its names in East Asia have slightly different nuances: '新冠疫情灾难 (Corona pandemic disaster)'in Chinese, '코로나 재해 (Corona disaster)' in Korean, and 'コロナ禍 (Corona hardship)' in Japanese contain words originated in Chinese sinogram and which signify misfortunate affairs. Those terms, namely '災, 難, 禍 (disaster, misfortune, hardship)', have cultural value which is different from that in English language. This gap reveals that the Corona pandemic is a global phenomenon on the one hand, the reaction to it in the human sphere is a cultural phenomenon, on the other hand. It is necessary to take into account culture as a subsystem in the global earth system, especially when we think about the problem of COVID-19. In East Asia, there is another systems perspective than that which the Anthropocene concept presupposes: notion of tian'天' or that of fudo. How do they relate with the COVID-19 as a global phenomenon happening in the Anthropocene? Towards the problem, this colloquium approach in twofold ways: i) from a view point of humanities, Masahiro Terada investigates various East Asian cultural terms concerning the pandemic through a lens of the concept of 'fudo', and ii) Stéphane Grumbach, a scholar of data and information, and Caroline Zanin, a student of geopolitics, through typology of apps utilized in EU and Asian countries for prevention of spread of the virus, investigate problem of cyber space and geopolitical meaning of COVID-19 as an environmental crisis. |
Program: |
Opening Remark Masahiro Terada (Visiting Professor, RIHN, Japan) “Culture, Environment, and Embodiment: COVID-19 seen from the concept of Fudo” Masahiro Terada Short Discussion “Intermediation Platforms, the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Reinforcement of Asymmetries” Stéphane Grumbach (Senior Scientist, National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, France) "Pandemic Threat, Technological Choices and Geopolitical Objectives" Caroline Zanin (Graduate Student, French Institute of Geopolitics, Paris VIII University / École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France) Discussion Appointed Discussant: Satoru Ono (Lecturer, Chiba University of Commerce, Japan) |
| Contact: | Masahiro Terada  |