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Volume 56 (2005 - 200･･･
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Volume 56, Issue 4
Displaying 1-13 of 13 articles from this issue
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From Cognitive and Instrumental Rationality to ComprehensibilityKatsuhisa TAKENAKA2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 780-796
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper focuses on organizational strategy and deals with it from the sociological perspective. The concept of organizational strategy first appeared as a military metaphor in organizational studies. Using this concept, organizational studies describe the manner in which organizations rationally compete with each other in the marketplace. However, the metaphor of organizational strategy has spawned its own discipline, and therefore, it is separated from organizational studies.
Since the concept of organizational strategy emphasizes the economic battle between organizations, economics and/or administrative sciences are the dominant perspective employed in these studies. As a result, the sociological perspective has not been employed. Nevertheless, this perspective is vital for analyzing the organizational strategy in contemporary society. Therefore, we must reconsider the concept of organizational strategy.
This paper aims to explore substitutes for this strategy and the following are the two candidates : business ethics and accountability. In this paper, I support the latter candidate and attempt to prove the effectiveness of the analysis by using criterion not in terms of its “rationality” but its “comprehensibility.” To develop this theory, I refer to new ideas such as organizational identity and expressive organization.
The utilization of these ideas will enable us to deconstruct the myth of the organization as a rational system and construct a new myth and theory to analyze organizations in contemporary society.View full abstractDownload PDF (1944K) -
Nao ITO2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 797-814
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper aims to reconsider the manner in which individuals who determine a collective goal are classified as participants and non-participants from the perspective of meaning construction. The resource mobilization theory and theories on the cultural conditions of the host society have focused on the methods of mobilization. In this paper, I used the interview survey method to examine both the participants and non-participants who support the collective goal. The empirical case study is a movement network supporting the rights of the Ainu and other indigenous populations. This network comprises a large number of non-Ainu people.
First, some of the non-participants stated that if they continued to maintain their social positions, they would not be permitted to participate in the movement. In other words, the non-participants referred to the need to change the course of their lives if they participated in this movement.
Second, the contents of the participants' meaning construction also revealed their mental conflict with regard to their participation as non-Ainu people. However, they attempted to overcome this dilemma through their double motives. Participants stated that their motivation to participate in the movement results from a combination of a resonance for a collective goal as well as a personal incentive to learn about the Ainu culture.
Third, this study has shown that previous leaders of this movement have maintained the importance of considering their social stance. These leaders proposed the notion of self-denial (Jiko-Hitei). In contrast, this idea is presently considered as an ineffective tool for mobilization. However, this situation does not imply that the notion of self-denial has been discarded. The rationale behind this norm is currently construed in a different manner.View full abstractDownload PDF (1936K) -
Yoshio NUKAGA2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 815-829
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSRecently, the sociology of medical science, which combines the sociology of medicine with that of science, has focused on several issues related to biomedicine and advanced medicine. This article examines the process by which, form the viewpoint of the sociology of medical science, medicalization models have been transformed into biomedicalization models. The analysis focuses on understanding the intersection of the sociology of medicine and the sociology of science. The concept of medicalization was defined in the 1970s as follows : (1) the redefinition of social problems as medical problems and (2) medical dominance over patients. This model presumed the dualistic frame of “disease as a biological fact” and “illness as deviance, ” taking the former for granted and focusing on the latter for research subjects. In the 1980s, social constructionists applied medicalization models to biomedical topics to discuss the social aspects of biomedicine and introduced the term “biomedicalization” without a clear definition. With the development of genomics, social constructionists in the 1990s used the concept of geneticization and redefined social problems as having been genetically caused; however, this redefinition did not develop the content analysis of genetic medicine. However, sociologists of medical science in the 2000s propose the concept of biomedicalization as a “transformation” with special reference to the innovation of biomedical sciences and technologies. This biomedicalization model is characterized by a comprehensive analysis of both scientific and social knowledge, empirical case studies, and content analysis from an insider's perspective.View full abstractDownload PDF (1618K) -
Yoshinori TAKAHASHI2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 830-846
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAmong the various types of lived choice, the one that is associated with an open society (Bergson) is of crucial importance from the sociological perspective. This study examines this type of lived choice-open-society-related lived choice. According to Bergson, an open society is not a society that comprises particular members, but a society that is open to all people. The main question addressed here is as follows : How is lived choice informed by this type of society? How does open-society-related lived choice affect choice as an act?
Open-society-related lived choice is significant because of its effect on choice as an act, and it goes without saying that choice as an act is itself an important focus of sociological investigation. It is possible that a person who can access an open-society-related lived choice may decide to act in ways beyond our rational understanding. For example, a woman who believed in Jesus or has made a lived choice for Jesus poured expensive oil on his head. Her act was criticized as a waste by those present, which showed that it was beyond their understanding.
The discussion is developed as follows. First, the author defines an open society in detail by focusing on its dynamic quality. Second, the relationship between lived choice and the open society are discussed. Third, the dynamic decision-making process is examined with reference to the relationship between open-society-related lived choice and choice as an act. Finally, the concept of communitas (Turner) is scrutinized in order to clarify the methodological significance of this study.View full abstractDownload PDF (1861K) -
The Dilemma in Japanese Equitable TreatmentFumiko NISHINO2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 847-863
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis article aims to discuss the differences between full-time employees and “core part-time employees” in retail outlets. Although most of the foregoing studies focused on the overlapping of the tasks assigned to both the groups, we have progressed to the next stage of addressing the overlapping or the differences between elements other than tasks, i.e., responsibilities, careers, and on-duty hours. This analysis uses the data obtained from interviews and questionnaires (Nishino 2003-2004). The term “core part-time employee” refers to a part-time employee who works more than 120 hours per month.
The findings of this analysis are as follows : (1) the tasks that both the groups engage in overlap considerably; (2) the range of responsibilities pertaining to their sales differ between the two groups, even though the designations are the same within the outlets; (3) the gap with reference to job experiences widens as the employees of the two groups get promoted within their outlets; and (4) the on-duty hours of the full-time employees are considerably longer than those of the “core part-time employees, ” because they have to work “flexibly” and overtime in response to their firm's request. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the advanced utilization of part-timers has reached its limit at present.
According to the interviews conducted, some companies adopt a strategy wherein they employ a smaller number of full-time employees and allow them to specialize in managerial jobs. It is then possible that the gaps between the two groups with reference to the above mentioned four elements may become wider again. In order to promote equitable treatment, the existing approach focusing on the overlapping of their tasks will not be effective. A completely different approach needs to be adopted in this regard.View full abstractDownload PDF (1702K) -
The Economic Practices of the “Kikajin” Living on the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands under the Occupation of “the Empire of Japan”Shun ISHIHARA2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 864-881
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAll the inhabitants of the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands are emigrants. They started immigrating to these islands in 1830 from all parts of the world. They made a living by trading with whalers who halted at these islands. The Ogasawara Islands were the center of the autonomous life world in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. In 1875, “the Empire of Japan” began to occupy these islands and these settlers were naturalized as “Japanese” citizens; however, they were named “kikajin” (which means naturalized people) and were controlled by the “exceptional” law in “the Empire of Japan.”
In this study, I examine how the naturalized people managed to survive under the occupation. Particularly, the manner in which they rearranged their economic practices by negotiating with the sovereign law of “the Empire of Japan.” They continued trading with “foreign” seamen who halted at the Ogasawara Islands. They were employed as hunters on a yearly basis by the “foreign” schooners to the Sea of Okhotsk for furseal hunting, often “violating” the borders of “Russia” or “Japan.”
This type of rearrangement of the autonomous life world of the naturalized people deviated from the “expanding and marginalizing” movement of the “nation empire” (the modern empire) and often resulted in “demarginalizing” border transgression.View full abstractDownload PDF (1916K) -
Group Size and Social Equality StandardAtsushi ISHIDA2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 882-897
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis article aims to present the possibility of interpreting a social dilemma situation in a new manner using mathematical analysis that analyzes the situation from the perspective of the distribution of resources and a social evaluation of this distribution. This is an alternative perspective on social dilemma studies compared with the conventional rational choice theoretical framework. It is from this perspective that we focus on the relationship between group size and social equality standard.
The results of our analysis reveal that in a certain condition, an increase in the group size leads to an overall improvement in social equality and the social summation of resource (payoff), but it decreases the proportion of Pareto optimum distributions to all possible distributions in the social dilemma situation. Given that players consider social equality while making choices of their strategies, we can state that these results imply that an increase in the group size breaks their psychological barrier to defection and facilitates the realization of all defections. In other words, an increase in the group size heightens the “intensity of the dilemma.” This interpretation of results suggests a possible solution for “Olson's problem.”View full abstractDownload PDF (1358K) -
Everyday Lives of Homeless WomenSatomi MARUYAMA2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 898-914
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSHomelessness has been on the rise in Japan. In response to the view that homeless people are deviant and require rehabilitation, researchers studying homelessness have focused on the subjectivity and resistance of the homeless living on the street. Generally, such research argues that the homeless continue to work, with the underlying assumption that they largely comprise males. Thus, this approach ignores the homeless who are not working men.
While focusing on homeless women, this paper is grounded in fieldwork that was conducted in a park and at a shelter in Tokyo. Studies on homelessness have overlooked homeless women because the proportion of women is only 2.9 percent. However, the everyday lives of homeless women are different from those of homeless men.
The narratives of homeless women obtained through interviews with them were often incoherent and at sometimes, contradictory. These interviews revealed that the decision to continue living on the street or quit rough sleeping depended on a homeless woman's relationship with her spouse, other homeless people, volunteers, and welfare officers. In one case, a homeless woman repeatedly changed the place where she slept, between parks, hotels, or shelters, due to her relationship with others. The transience of homeless women may be attributed to the constraints of rough sleeping and their dependency on others, in other words, their double marginality in terms of being women as well as homeless. However, these characteristics cannot be considered as a mere reflection of inherent tendencies but rather as a set of responses to the specific conditions faced by them. Moreover, these responses can also be observed not only in the case of homeless women but also among homeless men.
With the impetus to study homelessness from the perspectives of resistance and subjectivity, researchers have lost sight of performative practices. By presuming a modem subjectivity, in which individuals have the will to choose the outcomes of their lives, researchers have failed to observe and understand the fragmental experiences of homelessness.View full abstractDownload PDF (1712K) -
Humor and SubmissionAki YAMASAKI2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 915-930
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: April 23, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper explores the collective mentality and the formation of the nation state in the early Meiji Era in Japan. The empirical focus of this paper is Ishikikaii, an ordinance concerned with the breach of etiquette, which brought about the modernization of the concept of the body in Japan. By prohibiting casual nudity, which characterized the public mores of the time, Ishikikaii aimed to make Japanese public behavior conform to the Western standards of propriety. To enforce Ishikikaii, the police were directed to interdict those who walked nude on the streets. However, public nudity was rather natural for the Japanese who lived in that era. Women took off their blouses to nurse their babies, workers labored wearing only fundoshi (loincloths), and people returned home from public baths in various states of undress. Therefore, it can be easily imagined that the new law must have caused a great deal of confusion.
To determine the reactions of the people in Osaka toward the enforcement of Ishikikaii, I collected and analyzed newspaper articles that were published at the time of its promulgation. Based on this data, the following are my interpretations of the social consciousness of the people in the early Meiji Era : (1) there were many humorous articles written on public arrests and (2) these articles consisted of humorous phrases, which applied to both people and statesmen. It is able to read, humor is the way of “passing” for those who were confused with regard to modernization and westernization.View full abstractDownload PDF (1672K) -
An Analysis of Itai-itai Disease, Minamata Disease, and Yokkaichi AsthmaYuji TATEISHI2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 931-949
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper analyzes the institution of the scientific commission. The government sets up a commission of scientists to investigate an environmental problem and use the research results to justify a policy related to the problem. Most studies in environmental sociology consider scientists in light of whether they are for or against the victims and overlook autonomous features of scientists. Jasanoff (1990) fails to consider the social contexts of the scientific commission. This paper argues three environmental problems in Japan : Itai-itai disease, Minamata disease, and Yokkaichi asthma.
Commissioned researches can be classified into three types. Free commission research provides grants to groups of scientists to investigate an environmental problem without any restrictions. Limited commission research commissions groups of scientists to implement a research plan designed by the government. Review commission brings together scientists to review previous studies and provide a scientific basis for justifying a policy. The characteristics of these types of commission research largely differ based on the progress made in the studies pertaining to the problem. In free commission researches, before progress in the field has been made, scientists have academic motives and tend to study the problem autonomously. They often modify or strengthen their opinions and hope to disclose the research results at some point of time. In commission researches, after progress has been made, or in limited/review commission researches before progress, by contrast, scientists do not have many academic motives and are largely influenced by the opinion of the government. Since they rarely change their opinion through commission research, the distribution of the committee members' opinions initially strongly affects the conclusion.
Government policy, accountability tendency of committee members, and public opinion affect the disclosure of the results of the commission research. Disclosures interact with public opinion and urge the government to take measures to address the problem.View full abstractDownload PDF (1941K) -
[in Japanese]2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 950-963
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (1634K) -
[in Japanese]2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 964-981
Published: March 31, 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (2051K) -
2006 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 982
Published: 2006
Released on J-STAGE: October 19, 2009
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (27K)
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