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Volume 58 (2007 - 200･･･
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Volume 58, Issue 4
Displaying 1-22 of 22 articles from this issue
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Special Issue
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Masayuki FUJIMURA, Shinji KATAGIRI2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 392-394
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (219K) -
Nobuki NAKAYAMA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 395-414
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSAs a result of the neoliberalistic policies of the Japanese government, Japanese universities are now confronted with a serious crisis. More efforts toward the reformation of university education are required for the academic profession.
Sociological teaching in Japan has been developed in conjunction with the increase in the percentage of students enrolling at universities. Further, after the deregulation of the Standards for Establishing Universities in 1991. Japanese universities rapidly advanced the reformation of their faculties and departments. According to The Report of School Basic Survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the number of students and the share of "departments related to sociology" has increased; however, we cannot assert that the share of "departments focused on sociology" has increased. Due to the rapid increase in the names of departments after 1991, the classification of university departments in The Report was rendered invalid. The proliferation of department names symbolizes the deviation in the process of "university reformation" in Japan.
It is very important to grasp sociology as a profession. It is possible to pursue a career in sociology either at a university (institution) or at an academic association. The relation of such a profession to the government, financial circles, and the general public (a sovereign), and the duties it involves are illustrated. A very important point is that within universities, there are no discussions to collate opinions. Further, there is no forum to coordinate the opinions of these two spheres.
Teaching is carried out in camera. e pedagogical impediments are the apartheid of instructor and student, the apartheid of instructor and colleagues, and the apartheid of divided selves. In order to improve sociological teaching, the enhancement of a substantial rationality in teaching through the demolition of these forms of apartheid, the clarification of the goals and ends of teaching, and the close examination of the social function of sociology are necessary.View full abstractDownload PDF (799K) -
Based on a questionnaire survey by the Sociological Education Committee of the Japan Sociological SocietyTakashi OKUMURA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 415-436
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSWhat do university students majoring in sociology learn from the subject?
What kind of interest do they have in it? What kind of usefulness do they find in the subject? This paper attempts to explore these questions based on the results of a questionnaire survey conducted by the Sociological Education Committee of the Japan Sociological Society in 2003. First, I examine the students' interest in society and knowledge about sociology before entering university, and then summarize the results about their satisfaction with lectures, seminars, and so on, Next, I classify the vocabularies used by the students to answer the questions pertaining to how useful and interesting they find sociology. This shows that they refer to its "scope" (sociology enlarges their views), "nonobviousness" (sociology transcends their common sense), and "closeness" (sociology relates to their own positions) more frequently than usefulness in their jobs or knowledge about society. In the last part, I attempt to examine these results and tentatively consider the future directions for sociological education.View full abstractDownload PDF (466K) -
How to study sociology in university and to make use of itShinji KATAGIRI2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 437-455
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSSociological thinking, which is the perspective relating social phenomena to a large society, has become more significant today when many people prefer a small society composed of "self, family, and friends." In this paper, based on my educational practice, I describe how undergraduate students pursuing a major in sociology, should be educated in order to enable them to master the sociological thinking effectively.
Although all classes in sociology are important, the introductory classes where students get acquainted with sociology are particularly important. Although sociology is known as a subject, it is unclear how students perceive it. Therefore, the efforts made by students while studying sociology differ based on how well they understand it first. In introductory lectures, it is important to state clearly that most of the familiar problems are related to society. In addition, in the fundamental practical classes, it is important to make students conduct research on their own, even if their reports are rough or simple. In the various special lectures after the introductory classes, systematic lessons have to be provided. In the seminars and guidance sessions for graduate thesis, timely and careful advice is necessary.
Young people, who graduate in such sociological educational courses, can become members of society who possess a healthy spirit of criticism. However, in order to archive this, sociologists should make more efforts to develop a uniform image of sociology.View full abstractDownload PDF (614K) -
Expansion of graduate enrollment and the myth of the "American model"Ikuya SATO2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 456-475
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe phenomenal expansion of enrollment in graduate programs has brought about various disastrous consequences the quality of postgraduate education in Japan. The "American" system of graduate education —in particular, its relatively high rate of enrollment— has often been quoted as the basis for the public policy on the expansion of graduate enrollment in Japan. On the other hand, the programs and curriculums characteristic of U.S. institutions have been hailed as the ideal model to be emulated. A close examination of the so-called American model of graduate education, however, reveals that the arguments for the American model have been accompanied by serious misunderstandings.
This paper first delineates the causes and consequences of the expansion of graduate education in Japan. It then shows some of the research findings of a comparative study on graduate education in the U.S. and Japan. This paper concludes with the argument that blind mimicry of the American model would lead to detrimental consequences for students, teachers, and the academic discipline itself.View full abstractDownload PDF (703K) -
Kazuo KATASE2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 476-491
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe education in statistics, which was introduced for the democratization of postwar Japan, has been impaired by cutbacks in the school curriculum in recent educational reforms.
In an information society, statistical literacy plays a crucial role in the field of civic education as it facilitates adequate political and social participation by understanding research data, e. g., opinion research data. Also for the education in sociology, teaching social research techniques is important, since it cultivates a sociological imagination by mediating between social theory and reality through constructing hypothesis and casual schema. However, at present, in education in social research, there are not only considerable gaps among universities in terms of resources in social research education but also important techniques of analysis have not yet been adequately taught. Indeed, for quantitative research, the technique of multivariate analysis and for qualitative research, the methods of field notes and document analysis, have not been adequately taught. Thus, from now on, we have to eager to teach these methods in addition to the methods of collecting data.
It is a crucial task of education in social research as civic education to facilitate democratic social participation in an information society by cultivating research literacy for the appropriate understanding of the diverse information obtained from popular media.View full abstractDownload PDF (535K) -
Yoshitomo KODAKA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 492-505
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSFor a while now, sociological education in my university has been at a critical juncture. Since then, I have been considering the relation between sociology and social work education.
In general, critical viewpoints in a scientific field of study can lead to myriad discoveries—an innate characteristic shared by most sciences. However, during my social work training program, I realized that the critical viewpoint regarding the relation between sociology and social work education does not always offer scope for similar discoveries.
When faced with deviant behavior in a social work training program or at a place of social work, how does one understand this behavior? One could attribute the origin of such behavior to the person's character, or one could further examine the sociological origin. If an individual possesses a sociological perspective, he or she can notice that he or she might act in similar manner under the same social structure. Hence, sociology has the scope to provide a sociological perspective to social work training programs.View full abstractDownload PDF (511K) -
Kazuo NOMURA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 506-523
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSSince the 1990s, I have been involved in the creation of textbooks and sociology websites. I would like to discuss two problems based on my experiences. The first problem is the presentation of sociology as a discipline in textbooks. The second problem relates to the extent to which a sociology website should cover sociological education. Based on a consideration of the dilemmas faced by textbook producers and the contents of textbook-supported websites in English-speaking countries, I noticed that the issue of "ideals" assumes unexpected importance. There are two aspects to sociological education, and each has its own educational information environments. These aspects are "the knowledge space of sociological discipline" and "public sphere for sociology". I argue that the media of sociological education, i. e., textbooks and websites, should he developed, corresponding with these two aspects. Based on my argument, I point out practical problems of "the media that pass on sociology" in the current state of Japanese sociology.View full abstractDownload PDF (615K) -
Chizuko UENO2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 524-539
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSJapanese universities are faced with the crisis of globalization, which is defined as the transnational transfer of information, money, goods, and humans. As such, globalization refers to transnational migration at a higher educational level, students as customers and researchers as workers, in the global market. The globalization of Japanese universities can be measured using the following indexes: (1) migration of students. (2) migration of researchers, and (3) the degree of bilingualism (use of English).
Thus far, Japanese universities have been protected from the global academic market owing to the language barrier. However, they can no longer avoid the transnational competition that results in international ranking. It will bring about the rank order of market values of doctoral degrees in the transnational academic community that is more favorable to degrees from American and English universities than those from local ones, or in other words, domestic products. This leads to the colonization of academic knowledge. However, this does not imply that the closed domestic market is a better option.
How does this affect sociology? Sociology is an empirical social science performed with language; hence, it cannot go beyond linguistic and cultural boundaries. Although globalization is an inevitable trend, it does not imply the monopoly of Englishization. To the contrary, globalization will increase the value of local knowledge, where bilingualism plays an important role.View full abstractDownload PDF (561K)
Articles
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Problem bei Simmel mit Berücksichtigung auf Marianne Webers Frauenthoriekakuko KAWAMOTO2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 540-556
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIm Essay „Weibliche Kultur“ erklärt Sinmel, dass unsere moderne Kultur durchaus männlich sei, weil sie mit dem männlichen Wesen verwandt sei. Weil das weibliche Wesen einheitlich, in sich ruhend ist, ist es nicht zur modernen arbeitsteiligen Beschäftigung geeignet, obwohl Sinmlel darin keinen Defekt des weiblichen Wesens sieht. Simmel findet in seiner Unentwickeltheit vielmehr seine Möglichlteit und Potenzialität.
Im Aufsatz „Das Relative und das Absolute im Geschlechter-Problem“ anerkennt Simmel einerseits, dass das Männliche mit den? Allgemein-Menschlichen identisch ist, und sagt aber andererseits, dass der Grund dafür in der Disposition des männliche Wesens liegt, über sich selbst hinauszugreifen, sich einer unpersönlichen Idee und Norm anzupassen. Darin liegt aber zugleich seine Tragik. Und dieselbe Tragik gehört auch zur Moderne.
In ihrem Aufsatz „Die neue Frau“ forclert Marianne Weber, dass auch die Frauen sich mit dem Schaffen der obiektiven Welt beschäftigen sollen. Daher ist sie gegen die Meinung, dass sich das weibliche Wesen auf ein ihm eigentiinlliches Gebiet beschranken soll, wic Simmel behauptete. Es ist leicht zu sehen, dass ihrer Frauentheorie ihr wirklichlteitsnahes Probleinbewusstsein zu Grunde liegt. Zum Schluss habe ich an Simmels Buch Lebensanschauung erörtert, welche Metaphysik hinter seiner Frauenauffassung steckt. Im Kapitel „Die Transzendenz des Lebens“ findet Simmel das Wesen des Lebens im Dualismus von „Mehr-als-Leben“ und „Mehr-Leben“. Während das „Mehr-als-Leben“ das objektivierte und formalisierte Leben ist, drückt das „Mehr-Leben“ den schöpferischen Charakter des Lebens aus, das fixierte Formen imincr wieder zerbricht. Aber diese beiden sind nach ihm zwei Gestalten desselben Lebens. Er erklärt deshalb, dass diese Dualität eigentlich das Urphänomen des Lebens sei. Dann bezeichnet er das Leben, das beide Aspekte zeigt, als das absolute. Das ist das weibliche undifferenzierte Prinzip. So erblickt Sirnrnel im Weiblichen die Kraft, das Problem der Moderne zu überwinden.View full abstractDownload PDF (411K) -
Reclamation of the right to solve problemsHideyo NAKAMURA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 557-575
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSRecently, people who experienced eating disorders have begun to discuss their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Attempts to explain eating disorders in contemporary society have concentrated on the etiology of "individual/mental problens", "family problems" and "social probrems." However, on the Internet, some of the recovered people consider eating disorders as "diet problems" caused by strict diet. Further, they believe that they can overcome their disorders by consuming regular meals. The approach of consuming regular meals, that is, "training to eat" has been accepted as one of the means for recovery by some bulimic people. I tried to consider the present situation surrounding anorexic/bulimic people by focusing on the trends on the Internet.
In this paper, I selected two stories of people who recovered from bulimia nervosa. I examined why they refer to their illness as a diet problem instead of providing other explanations. Further, I also considered the reason behind this explanation.
I obtained the following two results. First, it was clear that the etiological explanations of eating disorders prevail among bulimic people. However, former suffers criticize "individual/mental," "family" and "social" frames can't provide them any solutions. They state that these interpretations are based on etiology. However, there is a difference between exploring the cause of a disease and exploring the solutions for it. People want to know the solutions and not the causes.
Second, it was clear that the explanation of eating disorders as diet problems is an attempt to reclaim the means to the solutions for binge eating/vomiting. Further, it is an attempt by sufferers to reclaim the right to solve the problem themselves.View full abstractDownload PDF (510K) -
Does Emotional Labor Cause Burnout?Koji MITSUHASHI2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 576-592
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSArlie Russell Hochschild (1983), who pioneered the field of emotional labor studies, contends that performing emotional labor has detrimental effects on the human psyche. Burnout, which is defined as a symptom of emotional numbness, is one of the effects mentioned. However, the empirical examinations of her contention have revealed somewhat equivocal results (e.g., Wharton 1993). Moreover, the question of how the performance of emotional labor could lead to burnout has been left for further examination. This is also true of the Japanese academic community, because scholars in Japan have seldom conducted empirical research on this topic. This paper, therefore, attempts to explore the mechanism involved in the relation between emotional labor and burnout by analyzing a set of empirical data collected through interviews with care laborers.
The results of this study indicate that not being able to perform emotional labor, rather than performing it, is associated with the care laborers' experiences of burnout. More specifically, it is suggested that care laborers who internalize their emotion work roles well are more likely to experience burnout when the work environment does not allow them to fulfill their roles. These should be regarded as significant findings, because they can refute the often claimed assumptions that performing emotional labor causes burnout, and that role internalization acts as a preventive measure against the emotional laborers' experiencing burnout.View full abstractDownload PDF (499K) -
Hideyuki SADAKANE2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 593-607
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSSince October 2003, suicides through the Internet, known as "Netto Jisatu (Internet suicide)" or "Netto Sinjyu," have occurred repeatedly in Japan. In this form of suicide, people who are mainly in their twenties or thirties find other suicidal people on the Internet and commit suicide as a group. By December 2005. 69 cases of this type of suicide had been reported, and 204 people had reportedly participated in such incidents of suicide.
The main characteristic of such suicides is that people do not share any fantasy or ideology, which is typically the case in mass religious suicides and double suicides committed by lovers. In other words, in this form of suicide, death is assumed to be experienced independently and "privately" in the midst of a group. Therefore, this death is different from a "tabooed death," which is one form of an alienated death that has been presupposed in modern society with strong taboos or norms. This suicidal death also does not conform to the patterns of "egoistic suicide" and "anomic suicide" that Emile Durkheim proposed in "Suicide." This is because suicide committed through the Internet is not attempted in the absence of society but in its presence. Therefore, in what sociological configuration can we understand this private death? According to the author's analysis, contemporary society relativizes the boundary between life and death, and it is this contemporary society that causes Internet suicides by affirming unlimited social arbitrariness. Based on this perspective, cases of Internet suicide necessitate a reexamination of contemporary society that does not exclude suicide and death as negative elements.View full abstractDownload PDF (519K) -
Hiroshi HAMADA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 608-624
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn this paper, we aim to clearly explain the complex relation between advancement rate and intergenerational social mobility by formalizing a mathematical model. In order to derive general propositions that do not depend on the particular values of parameters, we simply assume that a society consists of four types of subgroups, namely, the combinations of high/low education and high/low class origin, and that a person with high education is more likely to enter the high class. We analyze two situations-first, the case where class origin has an effect on intergenerational mobility and second, the case where only educational qualifications affect mobility. The former is called the lexicographic order model; the latter, the educational credentialism model. By comparing these two models, we specify the condition that educational expansion leads to the formation of a closed society in terms of intergenerational social mobility. The models also show the relation between the equalization of educational opportunities and a decline in the rate of upward mobility. Moreover, we not only derive theoretical propositions but also attempt to verify the goodness of fit of the models by using nationwide statistical data.View full abstractDownload PDF (510K)
Book Reviews
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Takayoshi DOI2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 625-626
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (418K) -
Michiko MIYAMOTO2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 627-628
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (418K) -
Mitsuhiro OKADA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 629-630
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (421K) -
Sayo MITSUI2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 630-632
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (427K) -
Norihiro NIHIRA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 632-634
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (427K) -
Jia-xin ZHONG2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 634-636
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (427K) -
Yasuko MIYASAKA2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 636-637
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
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Naomi MIYAMOTO2008 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 638-639
Published: March 31, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2010
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (419K)
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