Japanese Sociological Review
Online ISSN : 1884-2755
Print ISSN : 0021-5414
ISSN-L : 0021-5414
Volume 52, Issue 2
Displaying 1-24 of 24 articles from this issue
  • The Social Function of Theoretical Praxis
    Akira HOROIWA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 180-195
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper attempts to address the problems arising from the concepts of “determination” and “reflexivity” of social theories by clarifying the concepts in Max Horkheimer's critical theory. The social determination of social theories means that social theories are conditioned by the social positions of the theoreticians. On the other hand, reflexivity of social theories means that society is the object of the influence of theories. When we recognize the social determination and reflexivity in social theories, claims that the theoretical absolute, or the universal validity of social theories exists become something untenable. Horkheimer criticizes theories that strive for the absolute and calls them “traditional theories.” In Horkheimer's critical theory, which takes into account the effects of social determination and reflexivity, theoretical conception is a part of everyday social activity - what I call “theoretical praxis” -and what social theories mean depends on the social function of theoretical praxis. According to Horkheimer, traditional theories tend to reify individuals and society, but critical theory, in contrast, functions to bring about emancipation in its daily practice. The possibilities of social theories that take in the concepts of social determination and reflexivity are demonstrated in Horkheimer's accounts.
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  • A Comparison of Bourdieu and Veblen with Signal Theory
    Kazuma KOHARA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 196-213
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the principle characteristics of the “nobility” theories of Bourdieu and Veblen through comparison with signal theory. Analysis shows that Veblen's theory shares the same premises and conclusions with Grafen' s signal (-handicap) theory. On the other hand, the basic concepts of Bourdieu' s theory, such as strategy or capital, only share the same premises with signal theory, but not conclusions. This means that there is incongruity in his basic concepts. We can find a solution for this problem by focusing on other premises hidden in his theory, which do not go along with his basic concepts. The first is the introduction of different basic needs, and the second is the introduction of economic determinism of action. The former means effectively the renunciation of the social-structural determinism of value and thus follows the Veblenian theory, whereas the latter means the abandonment of the strategy concept. In the process of analysis, it is also found that Bourdieu' s theory of “nobility” is economic-reductionist in a broad sense, and that Veblen's concept of “emulation” does not always imply a subject's direct intention. The latter counters Bourdieu and Elster's criticisms against Veblen.
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  • Doing Co-Membership in Experience “Sharing” Activities
    Shuya KUSHIDA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 214-232
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This article describes the practice of telling one's own experience after another has told his/hers (“my-case-telling series”) from the perspective of conversation analysis. It tries to answer two questions. First, the act of telling one's experience has a specific difficulty as a way of “sharing” because the experience cannot be “owned” by the hearer in the way the speaker has “owned” it. How can people “share” someone's experience in interactions ? Second, experience “sharing” activities can be facilitated through interaction between people who share some co-membership. How does such activities constitute doing co-membership in interaction ? By analyzing several conversation materials, the author attempts to explicate the following four points. First, telling the same kind of experience as the preceding one constitutes proving that one has understood the preceding “case-telling.” Second, the series of my-case-tellings constitutes doing co-membership even if the experiences told are not similar. Third, the series of my-case-tellings constitutes a special kind of topic generating sequence. Finally, when this topic generating sequence is at its strongest, it can be used to renew co-membership in interaction.
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  • Koh KAWATA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 233-249
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 23, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Since Norbert Elias' work on the civilizing process, there have been numerous studies that analyze modern western societies and examine Elias' theories on the essential influences of modern state formation on the emergence of self-constrained subjects. However, little attention has been paid to the appearance of self-constrained subjects in early modern Japan. What I wish to show is that we can interpret the entrance of self-constraining subjects in popular dramatic narratives called joruri in relation to the early modern state.
    The overwhelming power of the state, which obviously referred to the Tokugawa state, was the main theme in the popular Kinpira joruri of the mid-seventeenth century. Heroes enthusiastically identified themselves with their lord Raigo who embodied state power. They attacked enemies of the state and contributed to rebuilding the state order. Here we find the image of the 'father-state'-personification of the state by the patriarchal lord-which reflected the people's acceptance of state power.
    In the late seventeenth century, a new genre of joruri drama, including Chikamatsu Monzaemon's pieces, became popular. In these stories, following the decline of the 'father-state, ' the heroes' morality-the legacy of their dead 'father'-became more appreciated than mere power. As the agency of this morality, kokoro, the inner world of subjects, became the central theme. Previously directed at external enemies, the subjects' aggressiveness turned onto themselves by their self-persecuting style of morality, which sometimes even led to suicidal acts.
    That was the birth of the modern self-constraining subject in Japanese society. State power became so omnipresent that it began to act not only in the physical world but also in the minds of these subjects.
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  • A Sociological Analysis of Policy-Making Process in Child Protection
    Naoko TOMIE
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 250-265
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This analysis seeks to understand how and why policy ideals are translated into policies by political actors involved in decision-making at the mezzo-level through examining the policy-making process of two policies which seem to share the same basic principles. One is the Child Protection Program which was implemented as a national policy by the wartime Japanese government. The other is the Child Welfare Law enacted in the Postwar Reform Era. This paper aims to clarify the relation between these two policies.
    Under the influence of macro socioeconomic and political factors, political actors involved in decision-making at the mezzo-level “adapted” past policy ideals and concepts in an attempt to garner support for the policies they were trying to push. In the process, the actual contents of the “adapted” policies underwent considerable transformation. Here, “adapting” a policy ideal refers to the importing and exploitation in policy debates of similar terms which originally expressed the principles or ideals of policies from a different context. The term “adapting” reflects the deliberate nature of the actors' behavior, and enables us to understand the process of policy-making through making sense of the actors' underlying motives.
    In conclusion, this paper argues that the central ideal of the two child welfare-related policies mentioned above were “adapted” from a policy debated in the early 1920's for different issues, under different systems of decision-making and with different motives.
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  • Another Suburbanization
    Chihiro USHIJIMA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 266-282
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    How was the “maid shortage, ” which is considered as one of the factors contributing to the birth of the “modern family” characterized by gender division of labor, related with the growth of the new middle class in Tokyo during the inter-war period? How was the employment of maids related to the suburbanization of the new middle class, and what was the significance to the suburbs of Tokyo?
    This paper attempts to examine the above themes using data from population censuses and past studies on maids. Maids, as well as factory workers, were the typical occupations in which many young women engaged before World War II. There was already a shortage of maids since the end of the Meiji era, when “maid service” became a means of income acquisition rather than mere manners training for young girls. As the domestic labor markets, which were regionally divided in the past, became gradually unified during the inter-war period, Tokyo absorbed a large quantity of labor from the countryside. Migrant workers from farming villages formed this big flow and maids were a major part of this movement.
    Although the actual number of maids increased during the inter-war period, the size of the new middle class expanded at a higher rate. It created a discrepancy between the demand from prospective employers and the number of job seekers, resulting in a serious shortage of maids. As most new middle class households were not able to employ more than one maid, wives were not totally exempted from performing housework. This contributed to the definite gender division of labor between husband and wife in the household. Thus, the western and southwestern suburbs of Tokyo, which experienced a rapid expansion of the new middle class, were transformed into an urban space characterized by a “dual structure” consisting of, on the one hand, “maids” created in the transition to industrialization and, on the other hand, “housewives” created along with the birth of the “modern family.”
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  • Formalization with Closed Intervalδ Model
    Hiroshi HAMADA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 283-299
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    According to national statistical surveys, subjective satisfaction of economic status and individual income often does not accurately reflect the objective situation. Although it is known that objective income distribution is positively skewed and can be approximated to lognormal distribution, the degree of satisfaction with income is relatively high when compared to the objective situation.
    In this paper, I attempt to construct a simple model that provides theoretical solution to the following question, that is, despite the fact that most people in society belong to the lower income stratum, why are they often found to be satisfied with their economic status and income level? My model takes into account important concepts in sociology such as reference group and relative deprivation/gratification.
    The theoretical assumption is that, each individual evaluates his/her satisfaction level by comparing his/her income against a reference group selected from within the same income stratum. Analyses lead to the following implications. First, the broader the scope by which people select their reference group, the higher the possible degree of satisfaction. Second, in the low-income stratum, the broader the selection scope, the more one experiences a sense of relative deprivation. Third, in the high-income stratum, the broader the selection scope, the more one experiences relatively satisfaction. Fourth, the highest income earner does not necessarily experience the highest degree of satisfaction. Fifth, as the logarithmic mean of the income distribution increases, the satisfaction levels decrease as a whole.
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  • Do Industrial Relations Converge ?
    Nobuyuki YAMADA
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 300-315
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Globalization, a significant trend in the contemporary era, is understood in this paper as possessing the tendency to bring about an erosion of the “peculiarities” or “uniqueness” of social relations in “national societies, ” and hence, as a consequence, bring with it the emergence of global “universalities” or “generalities.” The validity of this thesis is examined with regard to industrial relations.
    First, by examining the criticisms directed at theories of globalization, the claim that Japan is undergoing globalization is clarified.
    Next, the world-system theory is employed, firstly, as a theoretical explanation of the cause of globalization particularly in Japan, and secondly, as a theoretical perspective for understanding the circumstances surrounding the emergence of “universalities, ” which is understood as the pursuit of flexibility in industrial relations by employers.
    Third, this paper suggests that the emergence of these “universalities” tends to transform the industrial relations in each “national society.” In a sense, there is a convergence of industrial relations as seen in the cases of the United States and Japan.
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  • A Case Study of Autonomy Creation among Villagers' Groups in Bangladesh
    Shinji SAKAMOTO
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 316-332
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: January 29, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this paper is to explore the situation that spurs people into spontaneous participation of development NGOs' “empowerment” strategies. Most NGOs, involved in development activities with the objective to eradicate poverty, emphasize self-reliance through self help activities. According to David Korten, through their information service, NGOs create awareness among the people about how they are deprived by local elites. Korten argues that this awareness helps people to realize that their reliance on the elites could be the main cause of their poverty, and as a result they become more receptive to self-help actions.
    However, whether information from NGOs actually leads to self-help movements by the people for the betterment of their lives remains a doubt. Taking the case in a Bangladeshi village for instance, the local NGO was found to replace the elites as patrons in the villagers' eyes by merit of the information service that they provided. As a result, autonomous action was rejected by the villagers.
    The Bangladeshi case demonstrates that NGOs' information services do not always lead to autonomous actions by self-help groups. If so, what then was the cause of autonomous actions? Taking James Scott's “the arts of resistance” as an analytical perspective, our study finds that while cracking cynical jokes with NGO staff about the conduct of the elites, members of the local selfhelp group gradually came to realize that they could only rely on themselves to solve their poverty problems and stopped regarding the NGO as their patron. By using their knowledge gained partly from the NGO about the elites' conducts, group members were able to represent the elites in jokes with NGO staff. Such activities eventually led the group members to take up autonomous actions.
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  • The Implications of Cultural Difference in Elementary Education
    Masako Ema WATANABE
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 333-347
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper examines the differences in styles of explanation between Japanese and American elementary school students. In order to investigate the styles of explanation, this study pays special attention to the “order” in which events are organized and illustrated.
    The experiments, which use a series of four graphic representations, revealed that Japanese students have a strong tendency to state whole events in chronological order, while American students tend to state the result or effect first and identify causes in their explanations. When they are asked to give reasons, American students single out an immediate cause and eliminate other events, while their Japanese counterparts keep to the chronological order. Also, whereas Japanese students conclude their compositions with “social/moral” comments of events, American students explain the relationship between events by cause and effect with “factual information.”
    The study demonstrates that how the “order of events” is grasped influences the evaluation of events and the meaning that can be drawn from a series of events. In a multicultural context, there is a danger that the difference in style is sometimes mistaken for the difference in the abilities of students from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is of critical importance in education to realize the existence
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 348-354
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese], [in Japanese], [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 355-358
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 359-360
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 360-362
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 362-364
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 364-366
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 366-368
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 368-370
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 370-372
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 372-373
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 373-375
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 375-377
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • [in Japanese]
    2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 377-379
    Published: September 30, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • 2001 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 379
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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