2015 Volume 2015 Issue 28 Pages 148-159
Although it is relatively well known that local business owners are active participants in local voluntary activities, we have not had enough opportunities to interpret this phenomenon sociologically. Through a qualitative analysis of one business owners' voluntary association, “Junior Chamber (Seinen-Kaigisho),” and its activity in a local traditional festival, the “Yamakasa” in Iizuka city, this paper reveals both how a local economic network has established a wider civic sensibility and what kind of role it has played in its local community. This shows us the importance of reconsidering the possibility of a form of civic engagement that initially took root in the economic sphere.
