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In Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse
Yusuke MATSUURA
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
2-19
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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This paper attempts to reinterpret Durkheim's
Les formes élérnentaires de la vie religieuse. This text is often regarded as the pioneering work in the sociology of knowledge or sociology of science by pointing out that reason (concepts, category, logic, etc.) is dependent on social conditions. When Tiryakian referred to
Les formes élémentaires as “the sociological critique of reason, ” the meaning of this concept was much the same. Indeed, it is right to regard this text as the sociological critique of reason, but its meaning needs to be understood quite differently.
This text gives us a strange impression because it analyzes the most “primitive” religion to explain the “actual reality, ” that is, modern society. Arguing that a link exists between modern science and primitive religion, Durkheim mediates the dichotomy of rationality/irrationality and situated society as the inner relationships between them. Ritual is also important in considering the mechanisms of society because without it, neither idea nor concept could be maintained. Ritual plays a fundamental role in creating and recreating the social group. In the last part of this paper, I examine Parsons' critique of
Les formes élémentaires to make our reading clearer. Parsons pointed out that the framework of
Les formes élémentaires cannot evade some
aporias such as incommensurability or solipsism. Considering this critique, we will show that our reading can be an alternative to this interpretation.
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Teruhito SAKO
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
20-36
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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Today it would appear that Japanese sociology has lost its theoretical basis. Especially after the collapse of the Parsonian structural-functional approach, numerous so-called “revolutionary new theories” have been raised one after another. However, all of these, without exception, have not been satisfactory. To break free from such a vicious circle, we have to reexamine the works of our past masters.
TONGO TAKEBE (1871-1945) was one of the earliest Japanese sociologists whose works had not been appropriately recognized for the last half century. Takebe came into contact with the works of Herbert Spencer and Auguste Comte, and made the utmost effort to establish a sociological methodology that integrates the West European social evolutionism and the traditional Confucianism of East Asia.
Takebe' s early works which integrate Spencerian social evolutionism and Lu Hsiangshan (Tzu-ching, Ts'un-chai) 's Confucian socio-historical thought are highly sophisticated. He analyses the major characteristics of both with clarity by adopting a rigid pluralistic logic. According to him, Spencer in fact succeeded in establishing a theory that is based on sufficient evidence, but failed to answer the ultimate question of “how to live.” In contrast, Lu has effectively taught a method of good-living, but failed to induce general principles from sufficient evidences. Takebe organizes his system of sociology as it takes and develops the merits of both and teaches us how to live well in a constantly changing environment.
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The Formation and Transformation of Nationhood in Germany and Japan
Shigeki SATO
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
37-53
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: April 23, 2010
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In this article, I propose a theoretical framework for analyzing the formation and transformation of the concepts of nationhood in Germany and Japan. Nationalism is understood here as a field of politics, in which such various agents as “nation-states, ” ethnic or national “minorities” and “majorities, ” and “co-nationals abroad” compete and cooperate with each other by claiming their own concepts of “nations.” The “nation” is thus constructed, reinforced, and reconstructed through the dynamic processes in this field. By using this framework, I examine the German and Japanese cases from the founding of the modern unified states (1871 in both cases) through the end of the Second World War (1945). Three issues are discussed. First, the “nation” formation in Meiji Japan and Imperial Germany were both territorially framed “state nations, ” which sought to assimilate several minorities. Second, the emergence and intensification of minority nationalisms, especially Polish and Korean nationalisms, had different impacts upon the concepts of the German and Japanese “nations” : the ethnic and exclusivist elements appeared in state policies and nationalist movements in Germany while the assimilationist stance was enforced in Japan. Third, the German “co-nationals abroad, ” which became salient in the political and public discourse in the Weimar period, played an important role in crystallizing the ethnic concept of the German “
Volk” that was assumed to spread beyond the state boundaries. Although Japan had no counterpart to German “co-nationals abroad, ” the “Asianist” view that emphasized ethno-cultural similarities and “transnational” cooperation between Japanese and “Asian fellows” was widely used for justifying the expansion and consolidation of Japanese Imperial rule in the 1930s and the early 1940s. Overall, my analysis shows that the “nation” in Germany was often conceived in ethnocultural terms and relatively more autonomous of existing state boundaries, while the “nation” in Japan tended to be conceptualized within the territorial framework of the state.
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A Case Study on Race Relations at a Workplace in Japan
Yasumasa IGARASHI
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
54-70
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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This essay analyzes the Japanese workers' attitudes and possibility of change towards their foreign co-workers. This is based on my own participant observation interviews, and questionnaire research. This was conducted at the medium size machinery factory at Oizumimachi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, where many Japanese-Brazilian and Pakistani workers have been hired.
Until now it has been argued in the school of social-psychology that racial stereotypes caused by an out-group homogeneity effect will vanish through the cognitive process of individualization of the out-group members within a multi-racial and cooperative situation. However, I believe that this social-psychological perspective can not entirely explain the essence of the actual transformation process of attitudes towards people of different races. The process is actually highly dynamic and has its own wide variety among people according to their different statuses in the micro-society of the workplace. I intend to explain that individualization of the out-group members does not result in the mere recognition of out-group members as a pile of distinctive individuals. Rather, there is a rejection of an overwhelming controlling racial framework by setting the alternative and trans-racial category of “good companions” which is based on the self-defined criterion in the reality of the factory.
However, such an emerging autonomous race relationship is confined within the micro-society of the factory, and doesn't easily lead to a general change in one's racist attitude. I also found that the strong influence of the negative representations of Asian foreign workers in the Japanese mass media exists in the background of such views.
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Zur Banalität eines Charismas
Daisuke TANO
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
71-87
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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Wenn man über Hitler redet, spricht man gewöhnlich vom >>charismatischen Führertum<<, aber seine Anziehungskraft in der deutschen Bevölkerung ist keineswegs auf der Basis des >>Heldentums<< zu verstehen. Bemerkenswert ist die Tatsache, daB er - im Gegensatz zu Stalin - niemals in der Plastik ganzfigurig dargestellt wurde, das heiBt, er war kein bloBer Diktator. Eine genaue Untersuchung des Hitler-Images im Gesamtzusammenhang der nationalsozialistischen Medienrealität zeigt deutlich, daß er sich - besonders durch Fotografien - eher als >> einfacher<< and >>freundlicher<< Mann präsentierte. Gerade auf diesem intimen Image mit Nähe zum Volk, dem Imagedes bürgerlichen >>kleinen Mannes<<, beruhte Hitlers Populalität. Der >>Führer<< verkörperte eine>>Tyrannei der Intimität<< (R. Sennett), eine Reduktion von Politik auf eine authentische Person, and solche Banalität des Charismas mit der >>unschuldigen Privatheit<< ist der politischen Öffentlichkeit in der Medienzeit von großer Bedeutung.
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Tomoki ITOH
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
88-103
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the sociological significance of storytelling in self-help groups. First of all, I critically review the studies on self-help groups. Although these studies note that self-help groups provide unique mental support to their members, little is known about how the unique characteristics of self-help groups change the members' self-perception. This process, I believe, can be examined by elaborating on the concept “narrative.” I also review the pioneering studies analyzing self-help groups from this perspective. These pioneering studies suggest that members' storytelling can be interpreted as a narrative change. However, even in these studies this change is labeled with such vague terminology as “shared understanding.” Thus we see not only the significance of storytelling in self-help groups but also the limitation of some of these pioneering studies.
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The Function of Personal Networks
Yuki YASUDA, Mitsunori ISHIDA
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
104-119
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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Using the “Research on Personal Networks and Work Motivations of Advanced Info-Communication Technology-Company Employees” (1998) data, we analyzed the relationship between employees' personal networks and work attitude and motivation.
We confirmed : 1) that employees distinguish their discussion networks and information-exchange networks; and 2) that different structural properties affect employees' work attitude and motivation. Our findings suggest that employees' work attitude and motivation significantly correlate with the proportion of present supervisors and subordinates in discussion networks and with the size of the information exchange networks. It was also revealed that the network of an employee with a good work attitude and high motivation was characterized with the high proportion of formal ties in discussion networks and the large size of the information-exchange networks.
The difference is due to the fact that discussion networks are composed of non-reciprocal relations while information exchange networks are composed of reciprocal ties. In order to avoid constraint from non-reciprocal relations, employees with a good work attitude prefer discussion networks composed of formal ties. As an information-exchange network, which is a network of reciprocity, does not pose any constraint on its holder, only the size of the information-exchange network positively affects an employees' work attitude and motivation.
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A Function of Personal Network in Judgment of Own Status
Atsushi HOSHI
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
120-135
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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The aim of this paper is to examine the criteria and the frame of reference used in identifying one's own social status. Prior research has focused on the individuals' own socioeconomic status as the criteria for their subjective judgment. This research employs the perspective of Reference Group Theory and investigates the function of personal networks as a criteria and frame of reference in self-identification. Data from the 1985 General Social Survey (GSS), which contains information about others with whom the respondents frequently interact, was analyzed using a sample of white males. Hypotheses were tested regarding the effects of (1) one's own socioeconomic status, (2) status of others, and (3) one's own relative status compared to those of others. It was found that the prestige of one's own occupation, family income and educational achievement of others, rather than one's own educational level, were significant factors in the respondent's self-identification of social status. The structural characteristics of the personal networks showed no effects. The results indicate that individuals tend to comply with the status of people in their personal networks in evaluating their own status, but they do not refer to it as the frame of reference for comparison.
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Aoi OKADA
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
136-152
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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This paper analyses the household structure in peasant society during the late Tokugawa Era. The major objective is to observe the cycle of the household structure.
The
ninbetsu-aratame-cho of two villages in the domain of Nihonmatsu was used as historical documents for the study. The Hammel-Laslette model was modified and adopted for the classification of household structure to determine accurately the number of stem family households.
The result of the observation proved that the household structure depended on social class. The landowning class had a high ratio of permanent residents and stem family households in both villages. Also, about thirty percent of this class was found to have a cycle that formed a stem family household. On the other hand, the ratio of permanent residents among the non-landowning class was low. Half of the people belonging to this class moved to other villages within five years. Further, the ratio of stem family households was low, while the ratio of simple family households and solitaries was high. But the most characteristic of all was that the cycle of the household structure itself could not be observed in the non-landowning class.
As a result of this observation, it can be said that stem family households were the typical household structure in peasant society of the Tohoku region during the late Tokugawa Era. However, this assumption is true only for peasant households belonging to the landowning class, and it does not apply to non-landowning peasant households. Therefore, we should be cautious when discussing peasant societies of the Tokugawa Era on the premise that they had a stem family system. Even though peasants lived in the same village and had the same social status as peasants, they established totally different social and economic structures depending on their class.
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
153-154
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
154-156
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
156-158
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
159-160
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
160-162
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
162-164
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
164-166
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
166-167
Published: June 30, 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
168-169
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
170-171
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
171-173
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
173-175
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
175-176
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
177-178
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
179-180
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
180-182
Published: June 30, 2000
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[in Japanese]
2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
182-184
Published: June 30, 2000
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2000 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages
184
Published: 2000
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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