The Annual Review of Sociology

A Functional Approach to Trust

Reconsideration of the Luhmannian Trust Theory

Yosuke HATAKEYAMA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 1-12
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.1

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The accumulated corpus of studies of trust is based on the assumption that trust makes democratic and economic activities productive and efficient. This article explores the possibilities of a functional approach to trust through a reconsideration of the trust theory of Luhmann. His approach to trust is functional involving a comparison of trust itself with other functional equivalents. However, in the studies based on his trust theory, only his concept of trust is considered, while his approach itself neglected. To empirically describe social problems using his approach, it is necessary not to assume that trust is something good, to compare it with other functional equivalents, and to examine how an individual problem is constructed.

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Network as meta-perspective

The potential of network concept advanced by Manuel Castells

Daisuke TANAKA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 13-24
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.13

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This paper's purpose is to examine the potential of the network concept advanced by Manuel Castells. Various commentators have already criticized the network concept of Castells for its ambiguity. But the ambiguity of his concept, especially its abstract and formal character, has important implications. Network as a social form can be distinguished from other forms (hierarchy, market, and community), but, on the other this form's logic can also connote those forms as well. In other words network as logic can be located in a metaperspective as it operates on other social forms and as it generates alternative forms. A network can be expected to have a great potential to produce "timeless time" and "space of flow". And this high reflexivity of the network reveals the network society as an open system.

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A Safety Device for the Sacredness

in the case of "SPICON"

Mizuho HASHISAKO

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 25-36
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.25

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"SPICON" (Spiritual Convention) is one of the most famous events in recent spiritual boom in Japan. In "SPICON" many people including both sponsors and customers enjoy approaching the sacredness through buying things and taking part in sessions which are related to spirituality. Although approaching the sacredness is often accompanied with danger, they seem to devote themselves to "dedication" and yet keep themselves from any trouble and violence. How can they do so? In this paper I intend to verify, by taking "SPICON" as an example, that a new type of safety device for approaching the sacredness is appearing in Japanese society.

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Analyzing Life-Stories of Women with Facial Disfigurement

Difficulties and Coping Strategies

Miki NISHIKURA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 37-48
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.37

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The purpose of this paper is to sociologically examine the difficulties associated with disfigurement and the strategies for coping with this by using the life-stories of women with such facial disfigurement. The first part of this research is based on life-story interviews and examines the "lived time" of individual respondents. In contrast to Goffman who adopted a synchronic approach that focused on the fixed scene of social interaction and described how stigmatized people survive their situation, I examined the total lives of women with facial disfigurement diachronically. I found that women did not think camouflage makeup was always all-purpose. Camouflage makeup brings out both good and bad points, something that those who provide makeup service should consider in supporting those with facial disfigurement.

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'Return to Society' as Practical Resistance to 'Isolation'

Life-worlds of People Who Left the Hansen's Disease Sanatorium

Katsuhiko SAKATA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 49-59
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.49

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Beginning in the modern era as part of the process of national state formation, the Japanese government adopted an isolation policy for people with Hansen's disease in which sufferers were segregated from the general public and confined to sanatoria. This isolation policy was in effect for a century, ending only recently in 1996.
Meanwhile, in post-war Japan, there were some who left the sanatorium. This article examines the experience of Hansen's disease sufferers who left the sanatorium, in order to explore how they constructed plural life-worlds through resisting 'isolation'. 'Return to society' for the sufferers meant that they tried to build several relationships and selves outside the sanatorium.

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The A-Bomb's Human Shadow and the Strata of Visuality

The Provenance of the Image Inscribed by the A-Bomb's Rays

Mitsuhiro HAYASHI

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 60-70
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.60

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The human shadow that the rays of the A-bomb inscribed on a building in Hiroshima remains even today. In the postwar era, the human shadow has been incorporated into the historical narrative. This paper will be less focused on the reduction of the human shadow to a semantic network than on its role in concealing the strata of visibility. By analyzing the constitutive elements of the process of the production of the human shadow, I will seek to clarify how the human shadow appeared as an image in the social plane at a time when, more than in the nineteenth century modernist vision, the physiological human body had become a target of control and an object of technological assemblage.

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Discovering Draft Dodgers

From the Documents written by the Japanese Army Surgeons

Mariko MIKAMI

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 71-82
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.71

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the struggles in the physical examination for conscription between draft dodgers and Japanese army surgeons. The draft dodgers tried to escape from conscription by asserting that they were not sufficiently fit to be a solder. They injured themselves or told false stories about their health situation. The army surgeons tried to recognize draft dodgers. Examination of the documents written by the doctors shows that it was not easy to recognize draft dodgers and surgeons had to face many problems. This suggests that there would have been a number of draft dodgers who in escaping conscription and that the government could not completely control people in Japan.

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Establishment of the School Oral Hygiene System in Modern Japan

From the Standpoint of Professionalization of Dentistry

Rie HOGETSU

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 83-94
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.83

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This research attempts to examine how the school oral hygiene system came to be established in the Taisho and early Showa eras. Prior literature has revealed that it was the dental associations rather than the government that took the lead in enforcing that system. This paper therefore sets up a hypothesis that dentist' demands for expanding their authority might have been a decisive factor in the system. Then, using Andrew Abbott's analytical model on professions, this paper examines the institutionalization of a school oral hygiene system as the result of inter-professional conflict for jurisdiction between school doctors and school dentists. From the analysis of medical discourses in technical journals, it is concluded that academic professional knowledge, jurisdictional claims and external forces affected the institutionalization of the system.

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The Home as a Music Space

Discourses on Home Music in Japan in the 1910-20's

Yoshiki SHUTO

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 95-106
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.95

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This paper examines the construction of the home, both in terms of practice and space, from the viewpoint of the culture of sound known as "home music" (katei-ongaku). The concept of home music was spread by music magazines of the 1910's and was described as fostering enjoyable family gatherings (ikka-danran). Home music was realized and transformed from a discourse of concept into a discourse of practice by the spread of phonographs that resounded in the homes of the 1920's. As a result, the home became a space that was constructed by music as a physical, industrial, and cultural phenomenon, and generated by the technology that mediated music.

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Strategies for Seeking Asylum

A Comparative Study of Vietnamese and Burmese Refugees in Japan

Yasuhiro HITOMI

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 107-118
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.107

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Comparing two groups of refugees and their asylum policies in Japan, this article challenges the claim that the spread of international human rights norm causes the expansion of rights for international migration. Based on the multilayered citizenship theory that posits boundaries between illegal migrants, temporary residents, permanent residents, second and first class nationals in an immigration policy, this study suggests the following. Refugees extracted concessions from the Japanese government through a legal path, while the government introduced a segmented residential rights scheme into the asylum policy in an attempt to limit the spread of the international human rights norm. Due to the automatic segmentation of the migration process, refugees have been forced to modify their migration strategies.

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The Logic of Historic Preservation Movement in the Context of Community Formation

A Case Study of CSES in Daegu, Korea

Rie MATSUI

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 119-130
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.119

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the logic behind the historic preservation movements in Daegu, Korea. There are many Japanese houses in Daegu that were built in the era of Japanese occupation. This paper describes the logic behind a NGO in Daegu, Korea (CSES: Citizen's Solidarity for Ecological Street) that seeks to preserve these houses. The CSES has organized citizen's fieldwork to uncover "lived urban histories" in Daegu. They have found many Japanese houses. CSES has placed them in context not as part of the Colonial legacy but as part of historic resources. This study takes the historic preservation movement in the context of community formation. The finding is as follows. CSES contextualizes "histories" of the community into life experiences of local residents for community formation.

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Intra-Generational Mobility of High School Graduates in the Era of Educational Expansion

An Investigative Time-series Analysis of Social Mobility Research Using JGSS Cumulative Data

Shinichi AIZAWA, Mei KAGAWA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 131-142
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.131

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The aim of this paper is to unravel the change in the functions of the high school diploma using time-series variation in the structures of intra-generational mobility.
First, we try to set demarcation lines between birth years by examining intra-generational mobility, occupational structure based on the first job, and enrollment ratios in the institutions of higher education. Exploring these three aspects for every birth year between 1932 and 1965, five different phases are inductively suggested. Second, the five different phases are compared with 10-year demarcations to verify the former by analyzing chances for advancement to managerial level. We find that using 10-year phases only shows static and limited results. But result using time divisions developed in the exploratory phase produced results that clearly shown the changing impact of academic attainment depending on the period.

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Why Are the Standards for Employing New University Graduates Unclear?

Focusing on Job Interviews for Recruiting Students in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Liberal Arts

Osamu KOYAMA

2008 Volume 2008 Issue 21 Pages 143-154
Published: July 20, 2008
Released on J-STAGE: February 29, 2012

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2008.143

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify why the standards for employing new university graduates are unclear. This paper analyzes a dynamic process to employ new university graduates from the viewpoint of the sociology of education by interviewing corporate recruiting staff. The major findings are as follows. First, because new university graduates prepare for the listed requirements, employers add some items that are not listed in order to better evaluate applicants. Second, the standards for employing new university graduates are not fixed and are adjusted higher or lower during the course of the recruitment season. This paper finally discusses implication of these findings for companies and new university graduates.

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