Michihiro Kita

A STUDY ON THE RECENT TRANSITION OF USER-GROUPS IN HUANGPU-PARK IN SHANGHAI

In China, there is a tradition of using the park with variable activities by inhabitants in early morning, and we found that it was an important opportunity of social communication, by the investigation of the users activity in Huangpu-park, in 2005. In 2008, we did another investigation through questionnaire, observations and deep interviews with the users. By the survey of social background and the comparison of the results of two investigations, we clarify the following facts: 1. According to the transitions of main groups, we found four turning points of the users activity in recent years. 2. There are four types of user group, and the type of each group may changes to another by the influence of the passage of time. 3. The composition of user groups and the conscious of most users, such as the purpose of activity and the relationship in group, have changed. 4. There seems to be a correspondence between the type of user-group and the social property of the area they use.

A STUDY ON UTILIZATION ACTIVITIES IN THE MORNING BY THE INHABITANTS IN CHINA'S URBAN PARK

This paper is a part of series of research on public open spaces as affordable places for being in the city. In China, there is a tradition of using the park with variable activities by inhabitants in early morning, and it has become an important opportunity of social communication, especially for the elderly, nowadays. By investigation through questionnaire, observations and deep interviews with the users in Huangpu-park, we clarify the following facts: 1. Most of the users have their utilization activities in groups, which are various in scales, patterns of organization or relationships. 2. There seems to be a rule which is maintained by all users to share the places, and it is long-established among the users, spontaneously. 3. Not all of the users have definite utilization activities in the park, and most of their purposes are to communicate with other users.

Activity and Resource: Alternative Views on the Analysis of Children's Activity in Neighborhood Environments

abstract Observations of children playing in the neighborhoods of six cities in Vietnam present alternative views to the transaction of children′s activities and their neighborhood environment. They indicate that children′s activities are of such a complicated nature that each has in it a countable number of sub-activities called individual actions. Activity is a composite of these small actions and can successfully be defined by a structure of the interrelationships among these actions. This activity structure was analyzed and defined in terms of three dimensions – sequential relationship, dependence interaction, and dominance configuration. Data also indicates that children′s activity is dependent on environment because its individual actions interact with environmental resources. Environmental resources are elements and qualities of children′s sociophysical environments required critically in the process of realizing the actions. Children in need of activity demand certain resources from the environment to realize the activity. It is, thus, suggested that individual actions, and activity as well, emerge as a result of the correlation between needed resources and found resources. This view demands an analysis that takes the interaction of individual action and environmental resource as a unit of analysis and as a way to operationalize human activity.