Academic Incubation for Humanities & Social Science - Tokyo 2024

everyone, it's a pleasure to meet you all today. I'm Kotaro Okada from the General Incorporated Association DES. Today, I'd like to introduce you to a topic called "Academic Incubation for Humanities and Social Sciences." First, I'd like to give you a brief introduction to DES's activities. Last month, we published a research report called the DES Research Report, in which we summarized 30 points that will open up the future of the humanities and social sciences.

I'd like to give you a brief introduction to these points later. DES operates as an academic incubator that creates diverse projects with researchers in the fields of humanities, social sciences, and medicine. Our mission is to envision the next society together with research sites. In particular, we are interested in new theories that emerge from research. We believe that concepts are incredibly important when considering our current situation, the zeitgeist, and the challenges society will face next.

We are working on various projects with researchers, and in doing so, we often use the term "socialization of concepts." What is the socialization of concepts? It refers to words and ways of thinking that emerge from research and theory to interpret the present era. We operate under the name Desilo. In essence, it's about de-socializing academic fields.

Especially within universities and academic disciplines, academic fields are becoming increasingly " socialized," and I think that the general public probably does n't know how to access academia. For example, if the general public wants to look at a research map, they might not know how to use it. So, organizations like ours can become a hub. Instead, we access rich research areas in a similar way, and from there we collaborate with various stakeholders and work to socialize the theories and concepts that emerge from them. So, what exactly is the socialization of concepts, as I've been explaining, and I'd like to explain a little bit about it.

For example, there's the philosopher Timothy Morton, and he once proposed the idea of ​​hyperobjects. Hyperobjects are a term that refers to mysterious areas, like climate change, whose overall picture humans cannot understand. For example, in Japan, there's an artist named Olafau Eliasson, who recently had an exhibition at Azabudai Hills. Olafau Eliasson was influenced by Timothy Morton's idea of ​​hyperobjects when creating his work. Also in Japan, there's a theater company called Chelfitsch that created a work called "Eraser Mountain," which is...

I think that there are influences from Timothy Mote's ideas, or that young people taking action against climate change are using Timothy Mote's ideas as the theoretical foundation for their actions, thus linking them to social movements. At this time, I think that ideas will be distributed in the form of papers and books, but I think they will also permeate society in the form of works of art or social movements, and we call this the socialization of concepts. I would like to introduce a few other examples as well. There is a sociologist named Evillouse, and studies the concept of emotional capitalism. What this means is, for example, I think that you are often asked to do anger management at work, for example, there is talk that if you can hold out for 6 seconds, your anger will subside, but I think this can be interpreted as the management of private emotions taking place in the public sphere of the workplace.

Evreuse explains this by the concept of emotional decriminism, where private emotions are controlled, managed, or given importance within the public sphere. I've worked on various projects with researchers who study emotional decriminism, and during a workshop we held, there was someone whose company had switched to well-being management. Well-being management, when a public entity like a company considers the health of individuals, seems to have some aspect of encroaching on the private sphere. The participants expressed that they were feeling uneasy about this, and I wondered what would happen if we designed organizational systems based on this concept of emotional decriminism, or if it could be applied to national policy. What would happen if these ideas were reflected in society?

We see this as the socialization of concepts, and we believe that as these ideas spread among people, people's perceptions will change, organizational systems will change, policies will change, or they may be used in product development, and so on. We are engaged in activities that will have such a wide range of applications. As for the management members, I serve as the representative director, and we have anthropologists and scientists on the board as well. I would like to briefly explain what we are doing specifically. First, we held an event called the Design Experiment, in which we first asked four researchers in the field of human resource reform to define a research theme, and then we did a research project on women.

At that time, when we asked them to define a research theme, we asked them to define a research theme that responds to the times and society. The research progressed, and in the latter half, we had artists join us to translate the results of that research into works of art and performances. This was done in a concrete way in the venue, and the artists were diverse, including novelists, installation artists, and musicians. The piece in the bottom right is a collaborative work between Yoko Yamada of Osaka University, who is researching the concept of emotional capitalism in Japan, and media artist Kia Tomo. It is a game that can actually be played by two people, and through this game, you can experience a future where emotions have become the dominant force.

So, it was an initiative that allowed you to understand the insights born from the research through a kind of physical sensation. However, at that time, we were thinking about how we could reach out to society in a way that was not limited to papers and books, about the insights that had been born from that research. When we actually tried it, we realized that people in the field of research and people in the field of contemporary art or art probably don't often meet, but when people who have a contemporary awareness of issues in their respective fields meet, and in that process, for example, research theories are updated by being influenced by the works, we think that there was great value in that kind of collaborative process. As for other activities, we are running an incubation program for young researchers, and it is mainly centered on people who are post-readers. However, we think that the period between getting a PhD and actually getting an academic post is a very important issue, and how to survive that is why we are focusing on women in research.

And then we also provide support and accompaniment, for example, when a researcher wants to create a course for the general public, we help them run it together, or when someone wants to start a new research group, we provide operational support, and so on. We also have an incubation program that includes that kind of support. And as the third activity, we have created a booklet called the Design Research Report, which summarizes what the challenges are and what the possibilities are, especially in the field of new companies, and the PDF version is currently available for free, so if you are interested, please feel free to download it. So in the latter half, I would like to tell you a little about these 30 points, and if we were to pick up on each one, it would take up a lot of time, so first I would like to explain a little about the background issues and concerns, and I think that everyone participating here is probably familiar with these issues. I think that's something we've already come to understand, but especially in the new business field, there are issues like the so-called post-reading problem, the working poor with engineering degrees, the lack of employment opportunities after completing a doctorate, and the challenge of barely making ends meet with emergency funds.

I think these are issues that are gradually becoming shared throughout society. There's also the issue of not being able to find enough research time even after securing an academic position, and furthermore, I think there's the issue that fewer people are pursuing doctorates in the first place, going against the global trend. I think that's also an issue. And I think you're all aware of this, but there's the emphasis on graduate schools, the reduction in operating grants for universities, and the increase in competitive funding, which has made it difficult for everyone to fill out the paperwork. I think one of the challenges is that it takes up so much time that you don't have time for research.

So, I'd like to explain a little bit about what we are presenting with these 30 points. As for the first point, we are talking about the de-re-establishment of the new social and academic network. For example, in point 2, we present the evaluation perspective of productive interaction. Productive interaction is an indicator of research evaluation that has been discussed quite a bit recently. It is an indicator that evaluates how much the knowledge and results born from the research are exchanged within the knowledge network in various sectors such as government, NPOs, and industry.

This itself is an indicator that evaluates how much knowledge that was previously confined within academia is now circulating. For example, we are thinking about what will happen if we look at research using such indicators. As for the next point, we will tentatively use the term "independent researcher". While it is being used, the biggest challenge is that unless you get an academic position, there aren't many places where you can utilize the expertise and knowledge you've cultivated. So, the discussion revolves around how independent researchers can be utilized and contribute in such situations.

For example, in the field of new businesses, it could be working for a company to earn a living while conducting research at a university. We are also discussing the mobility of such talent and creating an environment where the work of independent researchers is properly evaluated as achievements. Next, I think this area is particularly exciting right now, but I think progress is being made in the business utilization of new business plans. For example, creating a consulting company that uses economic knowledge, or an anthropologist creating a new research company, or Elsi, I think. However, I think there are areas where certain academic fields are more or less compatible, but I think that business applications are progressing.

And when it comes to nurturing startups, there is talk that the startup ecosystem is important, and similarly, with more players emerging, the ecosystem of sharing skills and so on is probably still underdeveloped, so here we are thinking about what is necessary to build an ecosystem. The next argument is about Funding the Commons, which is about the multilingualization of funding, and I think that Academist, who spoke earlier, is using crowdfunding to raise funds in a way that is different from the traditional foundations and subsidies, and is working on creating new fans. We've explored possibilities such as fundraising, philanthropy, and community-based funding— broader forms than individual researchers or collaborative research projects, like funding at the academic society level. Towards the end, we also touch upon the potential of D (Digital Science). We at DESA have Mr.

Hamada, the organizer of this project, as an advisor. While there's probably still not much discussion or application of DS in the field of new social science, we've presented these points as a way to introduce this possibility. I've rushed through this a bit, but rather than presenting these 30 points as definitive answers, we've created this as material to help everyone understand the challenges surrounding new social science disciplines and what's happening now. However, we would like to take advantage of this and put it into practice with everyone in the future. In conclusion, I believe that research in the fields of humanities and social sciences, and the theories and concepts that have been born from it, are commons.

That is why I think it is important to have a funding mechanism to spread them to society in general, and we would like to aim to become a hub for that. By putting this into practice outside of academia, we can fail quickly and move with high agility, and we would like to start by having a small organization like ours try various things and find one success story or method of success. That's all for now. If you would like, please download and take a look at the research port. Thank you very much.

We're going to throw away that trash, so if you have any trash nearby, please throw it away at the NEXT TERRACE just before that. Thank you for your cooperation. Sorry, but we'll do a Q& A about food and drinks, so please. Anybody has any questions, take a answer. The top is super cool, so it would be great if we could get one on paper, but this is something we give to those who have supported us through crowdfunding, so let's discuss it again later.

Please make your way. [Applause]