A Regular Research Grant has been awarded to Dr Luca Siliquini-Cinelli by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (GBSF).
The Senior Lecturer in Law had been awarded £1,600 to conduct research into Japan’s new microforms of social cohesiveness, solidarity, and responsibility at the Graduate School of Law and Faculty of Law, Kobe University.
Dr Siliquini-Cinell said: “My sincere thanks to the GBSF for supporting my research and the visit to Kobe University.
“Over the past few years, Japan has been witnessing the emergence and spread of micro-relational forms of cohesion, solidarity, and responsibility in response to the ry?d?-ka shakai and hikikomoriphenomena.
“These terms refer to the crisis of social relations and cooperation, which commenced after the collapse of the Japanese economy in the early 1990s. My time at Kobe will be spent in studying these islands of civic friendship and activity in comparative perspective.”