UNews - Dr. Catherine Kingfisher

Research project examines happiness and well-being in intentional communities

caroline.zentner — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 20:25:40 +0000

As scholarly research and policy initiatives have more recently focused on happiness, Dr. Catherine Kingfisher, an anthropologist at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, couldn’t help but think about well-being at a community level.

“A lot of the literature in happiness studies, which is a fairly new area of scholarship, is focused overwhelmingly on the individual,” says Kingfisher. “From an anthropological perspective, too much emphasis on the individual is a problem because EuroAmerican forms of individualism are not culturally universal. So, I started asking myself what other approaches are out there that might allow us to broaden our perspective.”

After exploring several possibilities, Kingfisher settled on intentional communities, specifically urban collective housing communities, which are gaining in popularity yet remain understudied. Like other intentional communities, urban collective housing communities locate happiness and well-being, at least in part, in particular forms of social organization. But they are unique in two ways.

“The first is that they’re urban,” says Kingfisher. “Unlike other forms of intentional community, like ecovillages and spiritual communes, they are integrated with the wider society rather than segregated from it. At the same time, they are critical of mainstream society and try to create something that can respond to the kinds of loneliness, fragmentation and isolation they see as characteristic of society today.”

The second feature of these communities is that they are neither exclusively collectivist nor exclusively individualist. Residents have their own apartments, complete with a kitchen and bathroom, but the housing community also has common kitchen, eating and meeting areas, shared gardens, laundry rooms and play areas for children.

“What is unique about these places, and what has real policy implications, is that they’re hybrids,” says Kingfisher. “There’s a balance — a constant negotiation, really — between what is considered personal and private and what is considered public and collective. In these communities, happiness and well-being are constructed as simultaneously social and subjective, not one or the other.”

Kingfisher, who was awarded more than $111,000 over four years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, has chosen two communities: Kankanmori in Tokyo and Quayside Village in Vancouver. The study will focus on how the relationship between interdependence and independence is negotiated, and on how the idea of balance is mobilized in everyday practice. It will also compare how the model of urban collective housing plays out in a society that has historically emphasized individualism, like Canada, and one that has historically emphasized collectivity, like Japan. This comparative analysis will provide insight into how ideas morph as they travel across cultural space and how they are translated and assembled in specific contexts of practice.

“They have the exact same model — they want to create a community where people can have their own space but also have community — but this plays out in very different ways, given the cultural context,” she says.

On her preliminary visits to the collective housing communities, Kingfisher found distinct differences in the way things are done. In Japan, a strict line divides personal from common space while the line is fluid in Vancouver. The two communities handle conflict in different ways, too. In Quayside Village, people are encouraged to express their feelings when conflicts arise while Japanese culture values controlling one’s emotions.

The project is designed to be collaborative in nature. One unique methodological feature involves bringing two members of each community to visit the other.

“This will allow community members to learn about other approaches and reflect on their own ideas and approaches,” says Kingfisher.

An additional aspect of Kingfisher’s study will have residents documenting life in their community through video recordings. Kingfisher will supply the equipment and Don Gill, a U of L Fine Arts professor and project collaborator, will act as an artistic consultant and visit both sites to facilitate the production of film shorts. Each community will also choose two residents to participate in a 10-day exchange to the other community in the study. They’ll be looking at how each community handles conflict and how they negotiate the boundary between the personal and the social. The eventual outcome will be a non-academic book in Japanese and English, along with film shorts.

“It’s fascinating and one of the reasons I want to bring people from each site to the other is so they get a sense of how things are done,” she says. “It gets them to reflect on how they are operating themselves and they get new ideas or they get their own ways of doing reinforced or validated.”

Study tour gives students direct cultural experience

caroline.zentner — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 18:21:03 +0000

Participating in a course like the Study Tour of Japan gives students an education that goes beyond learning in a university classroom and the typical tourist experience. Students gain firsthand knowledge of life in Japan from those who live there.

“The purpose of the trip is to provide students with an initial exposure to Japanese culture and society,” says Dr. Catherine Kingfisher, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge anthropology professor, who, along with Diane Minamide, co-ordinator of International Programs and Exchanges, took 14 students to Japan for almost four weeks of intense learning this past summer. “For me as an anthropologist, I couldn’t think of a better way to teach a course than on site.”

Before they left, the students received training in Japanese language and did preliminary research on Japanese culture and society. The U of L has a longstanding exchange agreement for both students and faculty with Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Sapporo. Every two years, the U of L sends a group of students for a summer cultural program. Students stay with Japanese host families during their time at Hokkai-Gakuen.

Dr. Catherine Kingfisher, front row left, and Diane Minamide, front row right, posed with students from the U of L and Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in the tea ceremony room at HGU.

Myles Shirakawa, a third-year U of L student studying French, went on the study tour because of his interest in the culture and language and his familial roots in Japan. His great grandparents left Japan for Canada in the early 1900s. As a southern Albertan used to wide, open spaces, Tokyo’s dense population came as a shock.

“For example, when you take the subways or trains, especially during rush hour, you have to get used to a different dynamic,” he says. “This dynamic also reflects in the culture and the language where you have to be more cognizant of the relation between yourself and others.”

Dana Grinde, a third-year U of L student majoring in anthropology and psychology, took the course as a way to gain international experience without the time commitment of a whole semester abroad.

“The highlight of my trip was getting to know a group of U of L students in a different context. Travelling with the group was the best part for sure,” says Grinde. “We worked together really well and it was just a lot of fun travelling with them.”

The group spent its first four nights in Tokyo. They visited a number of sites, including an urban collective housing community where Kingfisher is conducting research.

“I’m interested in looking at models of well-being that aren’t based on individualism and personal satisfaction,” says Kingfisher. “Diane (Minamide) was absolutely essential to this trip. Her Japanese is very good and she could translate and interpret when it was necessary. She was pivotal, and the students just loved her.”

After Tokyo, the students made their way to Sapporo where they lived with host families and attended classes at Hokkai-Gakuen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ for two-and-a-half weeks. Shirakawa says everyone was kind and went out of their way to make him feel welcome.

“I had read and studied about Japan but I had never been before so it was interesting to see how they live firsthand,” he says.

“I had all these pictures in my head about what Japan would be like. Then you go there and you realize it’s not at all what you picture,” says Grinde.

After leaving Sapporo, the group visited Kyoto before returning home to Canada. One of the students’ favourite activities was going to an onsen, or hot springs. Each gender has its own pools and people must bathe thoroughly before entering the pools.

“It’s a different kind of experience. You have to go in nude and, sure, it can feel a little awkward at times but at the same time it’s rather quite soothing,” says Shirakawa.

“There’s a Japanese word for naked relationship. That was new for all of us,” says Grinde. “The idea is that when you’re in the onsen with other people, you’re all equals.”

“The whole experience was amazing,” says Shirakawa. “If any other students are considering taking part in the Japan study tour, do try and fit it in. It is a bit of an expense but it’s wonderful to go and experience the culture.”

The students received help with funding from the Campus Alberta Grant for International Learning (CAGFIL).

“They were the most dedicated, fabulous bunch of students I’ve ever worked with. They participated in everything; nobody ever missed a class or event,” says Kingfisher. “They worked really hard and had to give speeches in Japanese at different events. Every single one of these students came up to me at some point and said ‘my host family is the best host family.’”

A number of the students have maintained their interest in Japan and plan to return to teach English or for further study.

UNews - Dr. Catherine Kingfisher

Research project examines happiness and well-being in intentional communities

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Study tour gives students direct cultural experience

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