Psychology basically focuses on psychological and behavioral mechanisms at an individual level, but it also needs to explore macro level and collective phenomena. Especially in social psychology and cultural psychology, researchers have investigated group process, organizational behavior, and the mechanisms of cultural/instuitutional effects on psychological functions. Among them, studies on regions and local communities have become more important than before. For example, after the severe damage from the Great East Japan earthquake, people in Japan found out the power of social networks in regional communities. However, we have not fully elucidated what constitutes the important component of “region,” which is a rather obscure concept. Sometimes we can say it is a platform of community. We can also define it as geographical neighborhood that shares certain ecological contexts. To provide the current insight of regional studies more clearly, this special issue of Psychologia includes a collection of papers that conduct regional studies from a multidisciplinary approach, including psychology, anthropology, and action research.
（”EDITORIAL: REGIONAL COMMUNITIES” by Yukiko UCHIDA and Kosuke TAKEMURA）