Research Projects Selected in FY2011
< Foundation-Oriented Service Science Research, Type B2 >
Research on the Service Science of actualizing Altruism-driven Society; focusing on the suicide prevention activities
[] Project Leader
Yasuo TATEOKA
Professor, Shizuoka University
[] Targets
(a) Counseling for suicide prevention is social work performed by all people. Why is it that voluntary suicide-prevention counselors take part in these activities and continue with them, facing up to the worst situation of developed nations? We seek to clarify the driving force behind these activities and further raise the quality of suicide-prevention counseling in Japan.
(b) In the exchanges between counselors and between a counselor and someone contemplating suicide, occasions for altruism are to be found. Through the analysis of altruism in volunteer counseling activities, the project seeks to deepen understanding of the concept of altruism and to build a core concept of 21st-century altruism.
(c) Indicating the way toward a kind society and kind management with the above altruism as cornerstone, we will develop a new phase of service science.
[] Approach
The research will be carried out in the following five steps.
(a) Conducting qualitative interviews with suicide-prevention counselors, we will seek to clarify, from the standpoint of altruism, what gets exchanged between them and other counselors and between them and persons contemplating suicide.
(b) Through a careful examination of literature on altruism from all times and places, we will trace the lineage of the altruism concept through the 20th century.
(c) Based on (a) and (b) we will build a new core concept of altruism. In this process we will make use of the results of Supportology(Note) and the help of SHIEN Research Institute members.
(d) We will propose and carry out a training program for nurturing the above core concepts in a short time, and enhance the effectiveness and generality of suicide-prevention counseling activities.
(e) By means of a detailed comparison between the real nature of companies promoting kind management and the above altruism, we will create a scenario for realizing a kind society and establish evaluation indicators, building a bridge between service and the essence of this altruism.
Note: Supportology (SHIEN-gaku) was first proposed in 2006 by the leader of this project, Yasuo Tateoka. It is a new field of study aimed at clarifying the rationality of activities in which agents that lacked any overlapping up to now create overlapping in an exchange of supporting others and getting myself to be supported.
