Kyoto University is promoting MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which anybody in the world can enroll and take courses. Associate Professor Yutaka Yamauchi at Graduate School of Management is offering his MOOC, “Culture of Services: New Perspective on Customer Relations.” He will explain the social and cultural aspects of services by means of empirical analyses of several services such as sushi bars, Italian and French restaurants, and theories in sociology, anthropology, and philosophy.

This course explains the thesis: “Service is an act of struggle.” If you have ever wondered why you feel nervous going to upscale French restaurants and seeing a menu that barely makes sense, this course will demystify how such services are organized. You will learn that hospitality is actually about power struggles and that customer satisfaction is dialectical where trying to satisfy customers will not fully satisfy them. This course will prepare you to understand and deal with paradoxical service relations.

This MOOC will start at the end of January, 2016 and run through 8 weeks. You can take this course for free with many other people from across the world. The course is offered in English.

Culture of Services: New Perspective on Customer Relations
https://www.edx.org/course/culture-services-new-perspective-kyotoux-002x