GEfIL Independent Research Project

~Class Outline~
Various health issues occur in every region of the world, but for this Global Health thematic field, we shall focus on developing countries. Unlike developed countries, many developing countries are unable to take measures for the control and prevention of diseases. They cannot protect lives. Thus, while the average life expectancy in Japan in 2016 was 84 years, in Sierra Leone in Africa it was only 50 years. What are the causes for this gap in life expectancy? Poverty, insufficient education, political instability, that is, social and political factors other than healthcare are also creating such disparities. One may feel anger at these unforgivable disparities in health, yet it is the mission of Global Health to calmly work on ways of correcting them. Not only diseases are threatening people’s lives. People in developing countries, in particular, are subjected to many threats such as disasters, armed conflicts, etc. One important first step in overcoming these challenges is to save people’s lives first and then, promoting their health and wellbeing. To protect the safety of individuals and communities living under such threats, not just from disease, are also the goals of human security, which emphasizes three freedoms: freedoms from fear, from want, and to live in dignity. In the ‘Global Health’ thematic field, we shall first come to grips with the actual circumstances of the disparities in global health. Secondly, we will examine the health disparities between specific groups such as migrants and non-migrants and then figure out ways to tackle these disparities by taking multifaceted approaches. Finally, we shall consider the values pursued beyond health: What are the goals when promoting health?

~Class Outline~
Some decades have passed since the idea of peacebuilding was suggested at the United Nations (UN). This thematic group will deal with peacebuilding as a comprehensive effort to build sustainable peace.

Sustainable peace has mainly two elements: that the risk of an armed conflict lapsing, or relapsing is minimalized; and that institutions and their capacity is built to resort to peaceful means to resolve disputes. In this course, students will analyze what sustainable peace entails, examine actual and possible reasons for armed conflicts - international and non-international, consider how to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of an armed conflict, and think about the relationship among human rights, development, and peace. In that process, students will be invited to pay a particular attention to the place of human rights and justice. Through practical research, students will gain a deeper and practical understanding of issues including 1) armed conflicts and volatile situations in the world, 2) human rights and sustainable peace, 3) justice, accountability, and sustainable peace, 4)structural violence, 5) gender, 6) Peace Operations, 7) refugees and migration, 8) development aid, 9) security sector, 10) local ownership, and 11) global governance and peacebuilding.

This year, the topic in focus of this course is transitional justice in Timor-Leste, but students can choose a specific area or topic of peacebuilding to research, to come up with their own analyses and suggestions.

keywords: peacebuilding, peace, human rights, development, armed conflict, security sector, transitional justice

Nowadays, our planet appears covered by a mesh of cities. Through mobile devices, automobiles, fashion, music, or eating habits, the "global city" seems to overlap largely with the notion of "global society". Actually, however, it is a little different. Cities are, first of all, dense congregations of people, where encounters of diversity take place. With the city as their stage, people of different cultural backgrounds connect and confer. Secondly, cities are concrete places composed of material buildings, roads, plazas, and vehicles. Urban planning and the city’s geographical structure thus condition all happenings in the city. Third, each city has its unique history, which shapes the individual cultural character of a city. Understanding the global city means to think about the concrete locale of a specific city that has developed as a gathering of diverse people, who are connected globally. That concrete city can be anywhere. Let's focus on the downtown area of the global city you are interested in. Using the developmental direction central Tokyo should take beyond the 2020 Olympic Games as a lens, we shall examine by comparison issues such as redevelopment, gentrification, cultural trends, the new creative and information industries, crime, and entertainment areas, old shopping streets and slow mobility and so forth.