preoccupation

I need to spend time walking in locals’ footsteps and listening to their preoccupations.

Lee’s current preoccupation involves a wealthy local family, the Washbergs, whom he suspects of wrongdoing.

For decades to come, he argues, managing China will be India's "core strategic preoccupation".

On top of those digital-age preoccupations, Russell sought to indict the petty jealousies that exist among men — a subject, he thinks, that remains taboo.

But as politics has changed there is less preoccupation with religious background, a greater sense of belonging to an international culture.