Abstract
What is the methodological significance of case-study research in Japanese rural studies ? In this paper I reflect on this question by making a critical evaluation of the joint works accomplished by the three distinguished rural sociologists, Masashi KANNO, Otoyori TAHARA, and Takashi HOSOYA in Shounai District in Yamagata Prefecture between 1960s and 1980s. The main points of my reflections are as follows:
First, the importance of the use of case-study research in rural studies lies in developing a substantive theory of the dynamics of the collective life in rural society accompanied by its idiographic descriptions. In the joint works above mentioned, they succeeded in developing the theory in which the analytic emphasis was put on the linkage between the national regime and farmers’needs for living at each epoch.
Secondly, while the case-study research is fit for the explanation of events in their temporal process in general, Japanese rural studies have attached great importance to the long-term historical contexts in particular to grasp the persistence and change in rural communities.
Thirdly, the joint works set a fine example of the mixed methods research in rural studies. They utilized various methods and data to explore the case villages comprehensively from their macroscopic and historical contexts to the meanings and values in farmers’everyday life.
