Activity Approach to the Emergence of Urban Communities:

A Case Study of Civic Activities in an Inner City of Tokyo

Abstract

    It has been a central question of sociology how social ties had been affected through modernization. And then, urban sociology focusing on ‘urbanization and community' took over the problem, and gave answers that communities were lost, saved or liberated. In this study, we focus on the conditions of the emergence of urban communities as symbolism.

    Therefore, I conduct a case study of Shinjuku-Okubo district, an inner city of Tokyo, through the methodology of Activity Approach. This study describes and analyzes the activities of Kyojukon, a citizenʼs group having acted in the district since 1992, and then, I remake two research questions: 1) Is it sure that the activities of Kyojukon have ambivalent moments, structuration with increasing homogeneity, and fluidization with increasing heterogeneity? 2) Is it identified as the condition of the emergence of an urban community that the link of collective events has been derived from the activities? In conclusion, this study leaves notes of future tasks of writing an urban ethnography.