抄録
Sociology was born with the emergence of modern society. Therefore, the study on modernity has been one of the most important tasks in sociology. In fact, sociology has made many things clear about “modern capitalism”, “modern family”, “modern nation state” and so on. This can be recognized as an honorable achievement of sociology.
Can we say, however, that sociology has examined the modern character of face-to-face relationships? Face-to-face relations have existed in all societies throughout history, and are different from, for example, relations via electronic media. In this sense, face-to-face relations are universal. Does the universality, however, mean that its property has never changed?
The aim of this paper is to examine the transformation of face-to-face relations and to point out the unique character of face-to-face relations in modern society.
