Abstract
In this paper we aimed to formulate Activity-approach for Urban Community studies based on the findings from field research in Okubo, Shinjuku, which is inner-area of Tokyo. And then we consider a focal point of Urban Community studies from this methodological perspective. In previous studies, Community under urban conditions have been considered to be Lost, Saved or Liberated (Wellman and Leighton 1979=2012), and then the last argument has developed into Network theory. In Japanese Community studies, Urban Ethnicity has focused attention on since latter half of 1980’. Today a significant problem of Urban
Community studies is to reconstitute a concept of Community as homogeneous-closed system as a concept of
Community as heterogeneous-open system. To do that, however, we need epistemological and methodological
turn. Thus far a lot of researches have accumulated through Institutional approach: their research objects are
static connections of institutions and organizations and consciousness of individuals who are set in them as members a priori, and they use structural-analysis and questionnaire investigation. In contrast to this, here we
show Activity-approach: their research focus on collective events and interaction of individuals as actors, and
they use dynamic analysis of connection of institutions, organizations and personal networks.
