Japanese Sociological Review
Online ISSN : 1884-2755
Print ISSN : 0021-5414
ISSN-L : 0021-5414
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Volume 63, Issue 2
Displaying 1-14 of 14 articles from this issue
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Special Issue
  • [title in Japanese]
    [in Japanese], [in Japanese]
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 180-184
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.180
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Facing Selves in the Field Research of Immigrants
    From the Research Question Based on Visibility to Led through Daily Relationships
    Hideki INAZU
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 185-202
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.185
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    The objective of this paper is to describe the process of constructing and transforming research questions through encounters with immigrants in the field of their everyday lives in the globalized environment and to indicate two approaches to the fieldwork based on my research conducted around Kobe city, Japan.
    The first research is based on the researchers' perceptions, which categorized immigrants as visible “aliens,” while the researchers' positions and power to make them anything other than this are not critically subjected. Here, encounter is not a research subject but rather a chance to inspect the presupposed research question. On the contrary, the alternative approach, which constructs the research question from daily relationships with immigrants, focuses on the encounter itself as the process of facing the selves of the fieldworkers.
    Based on my research experience, I viewed these research approaches as a transition from the former to the latter, which criticizes the direct linkage between the notion of “aliens” and their visibilities by walking away from the ethnic festival to the daily relationships, especially among immigrants from Peru, and by becoming involved in the troubles of a family that have shaken my existence and have reminded me of my background.
    This is one example of the way in which fieldwork can be used to research globalized society. However, in the field of Japanese sociologists, there is almost a separation between international sociology, which focuses on structural social change, and life hi/story studies, which offer approaches to individual meanings of life and encounters with informants over a long period of time. This paper presents the possibility and the subject to link these studies on immigrants into one fieldwork methodology to bridge the gap between social theories and realities of daily life at the point of surveillance.
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  • Double Invisibleness and Everyday Practice
    A Case Study of Zainichi Koreans Living under Individualized Conditions
    Kohei KAWABATA
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 203-219
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.203
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper will focus on the invisibleness and everyday practices of Zainichi Koreans living in my hometown, Okayama, a regional city of Japan, based on fieldwork research. It questions conventional identity politics and its theory by illuminating everyday practices of young Zainichi Koreans living in the local community. First, this paper discusses two major forces that enhance the individualization of Zainichi Koreans today. Second, it clarifies the mechanism of “double invisibleness” and how Zainichi Koreans became invisible in the double meanings; first by being considered socially solved and second by being neglected from the theoretical framework of identity politics. Third, this paper focuses on “tactics” Zainichi Koreans have used in their everyday lives to combat such mechanisms. Based on these theoretical frameworks, and in order to illuminate such invisible spheres in double meanings, this paper focuses on data from fieldwork research and the researcher's involvement with the field and informants by reflecting cleaned data, “banal” cases, and the failure of interviews.
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  • An Interaction Theoretical Study on the Voluntary Hard Work of Software Development Engineers
    From the Viewpoint of “Folk Sociology”
    Hiroko MIYAJI
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 220-238
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.220
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    Software development engineers are voluntarily absorbed in their work at their places of employment, where engineers' autonomy is respected until they become the victims of burnout syndrome. Such voluntary hard work has been considered to result from normative control; engineers internalize and follow the cultural norms designed by the company they work for. This paper, based on the author's interviews with engineers, depicts “the code,” which is the cultural norm prevailing at the workplace of X company. It seems that engineers' narratives of their voluntary hard work were narratives that followed the code.
    However, this paper clarifies the meanings of engineers' narratives beyond following the code by analyzing their narratives from the viewpoint of “folk sociology.” Engineers did not become absorbed in their work as a result of internalizing the cultural norm uniformly. On the one hand, they interpreted others' speech by constantly referring to the code; on the other hand, they continued to pursue their own interests by speaking the code. Through such interaction and with common sense knowledge specific to their workplace symbolized by the code, engineers were able to cooperate with others and become imperceptibly involved in hard work, which likely caused them to experience burnout.
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Articles
  • A Critical Consideration of Reciprocity in a Social Policy Context
    Potential of Theories of “Diverse Reciprocity” for New Social Design
    Hiroya HIRANO
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 239-255
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.239
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    The objective of this article is to identify the differences among the various concepts of reciprocity in a social policy context in terms of their structures and to examine the potential of the theory of “diverse reciprocity,” which has been proposed by Tony Fitzpatrick as one of the new theories concerning reciprocity.
    With the reconstruction of the welfare state system, the discourse on reciprocity in social policy has also changed. In the 1950-1970s, “the golden age of the welfare state,” reciprocity was thought of as a “gift-exchange,” which means gifts are given to strangers without receiving anything in return. This implies that citizenship rights were recognized very generously in this age. However, “welfare contractualism” has now become a dominant discourse of reciprocity, which insists that “there are no rights without responsibilities,” according to the increasing trend to restrict the execution of rights. In response, theories of “diverse reciprocity,” which are being proposed as a counter discourse to combat “welfare contractualism,” insist that “there are no responsibilities without rights” and therefore has become a strategy for claiming unconditional fundamental rights as preconditions for executing unconditional obligations.
    Theories of “diverse reciprocity” have several implications for reconstructing social policy, including justification for delivering unconditional social security at the basic level and protecting “the vulnerable” as full and equal citizens, along with multiple options for choosing the contents of obligations. This means that “diverse reciprocity” could be the new theory of social design, with the potential for radical social reform.
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  • Imperial Family Festivals and Consumptions
    The Formation of Urban Experiences Relating to Imperial Family Festivals in the Early 20th Century
    Hiroki MIGITA
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 256-273
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.256
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    How did modern people find meaning in their experiences of Imperial Family festivals? How were these experiences influenced by the formation of modern urban space? The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the social function of Imperial Family festivals in modern Japan by approaching this question from a sociological viewpoint.
    The focus of this paper is on the “urban” experiences with regard to Imperial Family festivals that were linked to the modernization of Tokyo in the early 20th century. During the Taisho and early Showa eras, for the common people both the meaning and the experience of festivals were based on the desire for consumption. What animated people on festival days in Tokyo was not a nationalistic attitude of immersion in and passion for the ceremonies of the festival. Rather, their attitude was that of “consumers” who would enjoy as spectators the atmosphere of the festival by indulging in the purchase of commercial goods and services. This paper will clarify the existence of a specifically modern festival experience in urban space that cannot be understood in the framework of nation-state theory, by identifying positively how these experiences and the meanings attached to Imperial Family festivals fixed among the people following the modern development of Tokyo.
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  • Culture and Identity in Liberal Multiculturalism
    Reflexivity, Agency Model of Identity, and Autonomy
    Satoshi ADACHI
    2012 Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 274-289
    Published: September 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: November 22, 2013
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.63.274
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper investigates the relationship between identity and culture, which is an important issue in the multiculturalism debate from the perspective of “reflexivity.” Multiculturalism is a political doctrine of social integration in contemporary multicultural society, where the development of globalization makes it difficult for a nation-state to exclusively represent an entire public sphere. However, a lot of commentators, especially liberal ones, have doubted whether multiculturalism in fact has positive effects on social integration. Some of the most important issues on multiculturalism are related to the ideas of culture and identity, which multiculturalism supposes. These include three interconnected issues: the essentialistic understanding of culture, the intrinsic connection and distance between individual identity and group culture, and the crisis of individual autonomy caused by protecting cultural conventions. To respond to these issues imposed on multiculturalism, I demonstrate a model of the relationship between culture and identity through the critical review of Charles Taylor's identity theory and reference the reflexive modernity theory of Anthony Giddens, the identity management theory of Adachi Satoshi, the “culture” theory of Anne Phillips, and the talk theory of Paul Lichterman. I then discuss the fact that people can have “autonomy,”—that is, a will and capacity that make it possible for people to reflect their own group culture and to accept some, but not all, elements of their culture as an important part of their identities. Finally, it is shown that protesting individual autonomy should be a condition of multiculturalism that a liberal regime could support.
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