PhD Candidate - Doktorand
Department of Social and Economic Geography
Affiliated with CIND, Centre for Research
on Innovation and Industrial Dynamics
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
Box 513
SE-751 20 Uppsala
Sweden
email: jakob.nobuoka@kultgeog.uu.se
Tel: +46 (0)18 471 33 23
Fax: +46 (0)18 471 74 18
Mob: +46 (0)739 443 743
icq: 315-802-785
Visiting address:
Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Ekonomikum, (Map)
Jakob Nobuoka started studying at Uppsala University in 2000 and started as PhD student at the Department of Social and Economic Geography in 2006.
Ongoing research projects
User innovation
In recent decades personalized content has become increasingly important for selling high tech products such as home computers, mobile telephones and other home electronic supplies. During the last decades many scholars of economic geography have shown an interest in innovation studies and knowledge creation within firms. A large portion of this works have come to analyze and describe inter firm and firm to firm relations, hence focusing on the supply side of the economy. The main focus of the studies of culture industries has often been the companies, company context and its work force, but users and their importance to innovation have not yet fully been studied by geographers. I wish to study innovation in culture industries by focusing on the users and will do this by discussing user innovation, how users can play a role in the innovation process and how they contribute to innovation.
Japanese Culture Industries
Most people do not see products as limited entities. Instead most products are viewed as parts of a whole or as functioning in relation to other products. For us, as users, an increasing number of products also compile various aesthetic and symbolic values although they also have a function to fulfill. This has led to a merging of the production of technology and the production of culture. The thesis at hand takes its starting point in such processes and asks how it is happening, why it is happening, and what we can learn from it. In particular, the thesis aims to examine the idea of media mix in relation to the Japanese cultural or content industries. The Japanese cultural industries are not only large and growing but heavily characterized by media mix. In short they are industries where a wide range of different media, products and revenue streams are combined in novel ways: e.g. under single unifying brands/cultural markers or on innovative technological and media platforms. The thesis will pay special attention to the role of users in the innovation and industrial processes that underpin this phenomenon.
Case study: Akihabara
Akihabara Electronic Town is an area where users, producers, consumers and retailers involved in electronics and in cultural products meet and interact. In Akihabara the Otaku bunka, a sub-cultural ‘nerd’ practise of Japan is booming alongside the electronic shops. The place has become a haven for the Otaku bunka and therefore the culture evolves in a relatively unconstrained manner. This geographical melting pot produces offspring that nurture the culture industries with profitable innovations.
Under Graduate Thesis
Nobuoka, Jakob (2004); Kollektivtrafikens förutsättningar och konsekvenser. Ny järnväg mellan Uppsala och Enköping. Arbetsrapporter (538), Kulturgeografiska Institutionen, Uppsala Universitet
Nobuoka, Jakob (2003); Rör inte min bakgård! Bostäder, protester och demokrati. Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Uppsala Universitet
Nobuoka, Jakob (2002); Chihoujichi – Lokalt självstyre i Japan och Sverige. Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Uppsala Universitet
Education
M. A. Uppsala University, 2004
Political Science (Statskunskap, kurs A-D)
B. A. Uppsala University, 2004
Social and Economic Geography (Samhällsgeografi A-C)
Conference
Second Global Conference on Economic Geography, Beijing 2007. Presentation at the conference: User-led innovation and Japanese culture Industries.
Asian Sports in a Global World. Traditions and Transformations. Copenhagen, 2007
What Difference A Region Makes. London, 2006
Membership
Co Chairman 2006-2007, Samhällsvetenskapliga doktorandrådet (SDR) Uppsala Universitet
Steering group. Asian Creativity, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS, Copenhagen)
Svenska sällskapet för antropologi och geografi (SSAG)
Geografiska föreningen, Uppsala
Chairman Uppsala Kendo Klubb
Uppsala Muso shinden ryu Iaido
Teaching
Samhällsvetarprogrammets grundkurs, Samhällsvetenskaplig analys Föreläsning och diskussionsseminarium om ämnet migration samt examination av momentet.
STS-programmet, Lokala innovationsmiljöer i globala nätverk: kommunikationer, institutioner och organisationer Föreläsning om rapportskrivande och samhällsvetenskaplig metod; handledning, opponeringsseminarium och examination av rapporter.
Urban och Social geografi Fältkurs på annan ort: planering och administration; handledning, opponeringsseminarium och examination av rapporter.
Geografi A Kartövning 1(Sveriges kartor) och 2 (GIS) Utarbetande, handledning och examination av laborationsövningen.
EFOS Ekonomi, företagande och samhälle. Ekonomprogrammet.