The Annual Review of Sociology

Special issue: Review of the Relation between “Social Action and Social Order”

Review of the Relation between “Social Action and Social Order”

Kyoko Utsunomiya

Article type: Special issue
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 1-11
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.1

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The symposium theme at the annual meeting of the Kanto Sociological Society was a review of the relation between social action and social order. It is necessary for us to reconsider the relation between social action and social order in connection with the ‘subjective-objective schema of social action’, because this schema concerns not only the relation between social actors and sociologists but also the relation between social actors. Namely, this schema is related not only to an epistemological problem but also to substantives issues of social action and social order. Should we distinguish subjective meaning and objective meaning? Is it possible for us to ask about the signification of social action apart from social order? In this paper I would like to consider the significance of three reports in the symposium from this perspective.

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The Embodied Perception in Prenatal Ultrasound Examinations

Aug Nishizaka

Article type: Special issue
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 12-23
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.12

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I explore the methodical ways in which the participants (healthcare providers and pregnant women) in prenatal ultrasound examinations produce the orderliness of the activity of demonstrating the normality of fetal and uterine development. The methodical ways include the organization of sequences of a particular type, and various practices of structuring the image on the ultrasound monitor screen.

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The Problem of “Action and Order” in Max Weber's Social Theory

From the Perspective of “Einverständnis”

Katsuhiro Matsui

Article type: Special issue
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 24-35
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.24

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The purpose of this essay is to clarify the meaning of “Einverständnis” in Max Weber's early manuscripts of Economy and Society and thus to reexamine the problem of “action and order” in his social theory. “Einverständnis” means the order that makes possible social action as if there was a social order even when no agreed or established order in fact exists. First, we show this concept is the basis for the realization of a rational social order and we attempt to explain the structure of multi-layered communities. Second, we examine Weber's sociology of domination from the perspective of “Einverständnis” and the multi-layered structure of communities. In this way we can understand his sociology of modern bureaucracy not only as a formal-rational structure but also as the construction of order based on the self-justification, convention, traditional life style, and honor and status.

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On Lived Choice

Yoshinori Takahashi

Article type: Special issue
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 36-49
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.36

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Lived choice is a concept that has been proposed by the author. Lived choice, in opposition to the choice as an act, is not an act but an experience or an event. As for lived choice of fascination, it is an experience of being fascinated by something. Such experience is, as it were, disarmament of oneself against that something. The person who has such experience has a special connection with that something in that the person disarms solely against that something. In that sense the person can be said to have chosen unintentionally that something. This choice is that which is lived. That is why such choice is called here lived choice. The purpose of this paper is to make clear the theoretical background of the concept, and to explore its theoretical significance, and finally to propose another type of lived choice, i.e. lived choice of société ouverte.

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Articles

Goal Oriented Rational Behavior on Paid Holidays for Female Workers

Empirical Analysis of Influence to Income by Using Paid Holidays

Go Igusa

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 50-61
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.50

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Many Japanese workers do not use all of the paid holidays they are entitled to take. One reason is the economic significance of not using paid holidays, that not taking paid holidays leads to an increase in future income. Although it is pointed out that in theory taking paid holidays adversely influences future income in the long run, are disparities in compensation really occurring in the actual labor market? To test this proposition, this paper makes a dynamic empirical analysis with regard to disparities in future income as a result of using paid holidays using the data on individuals available in the “Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (JPSC)” conducted by the Institute for Research on Household Economics. The survey base includes both males and females but the male case was not analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there was no compensation disadvantage arising from the number of paid holidays taken.

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Chinese as a Syntactically Rational Language and an “Anschaulich” Script in the Writings of Max Weber

Daido Ino

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 62-73
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.62

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Chinese script was one of the important issues in Weber's “Confucianism and Taoism,” but this has been neglected in studies of his sociology. He emphasized the character of the Chinese script formally, but did not elaborate on this point. He looked on the Chinese script as “anschaulich”. This German adjective means ‘visual’ or ‘intuitive’. He claimed that he “merely reproduced what Sinologists such as W. Grube had said about Chinese language and script”. This paper shows that Weber went beyond reproduction of what Sinologists
had said, interpreting their statements in terms of his own theories about such concepts as “rational”. He referred to the “rational qualities of the Chinese tongue's structure.” But he took the concept “anschaulich” from Grube's theory. Weber contrasted what he saw as the syntactically rational Chinese language with the “anschaulich” script.

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Housework, Paid Work and Affection among Gay Couples

Examining Theories of Division of Housework in Heterosexual Families.

Yusuke Kamiya

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 74-85
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.74

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The purpose of this article is to analyze how housework is divided between gay partners and to examine conventional theories of the division of housework in heterosexual families.The analysis shows that these theories do not apply to all cases. This is because conventional theories are built on the assumption of a joint family budget and a single-income couple. This does not apply to gay couples where each person has an independent personal budget and both partners have their own incomes.

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Marital Assimilation of Mexican Generations:

A Log-Linear Analysis of Interethnic and Intergenerational Marriages

Yukio Kawano

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 86-96
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.86

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Qian and Lichter argued in 2007 that Hispanic marital assimilation had reversed its trend since the 1990s due to the continuous inflow of coethnic immigrants. This research assesses their claim with particular attention to marriages of Mexicans across generations. A quasi-independent symmetry model of log-linear analysis was performed on a sample of married Mexican and non-Hispanic white population taken from 1994–2009 CPS annual data. The result indicates two opposing trends: increasing marriage between native-born Mexicans and whites coupled with declining marriage between foreign-born and US-born Mexicans. Contradictory to the above-mentioned paper, this research suggests that “social distance” between US-born Mexicans and non-Mexican whites is closing, while those between Mexican generations are not.

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The Socioeconomic Background to the Enactment of “Absolute Isolation” Policy Toward Leprosy Patients in Japan

Based on Statistics from the Pre-war Period

Motoyuki Goto

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 97-108
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.97

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In 1931, Japanese government enacted the “absolute isolation” policy with respect to leprosy patients to prevent the spread of the disease. However, judged from a medical point of view, compared with the tuberculosis which is a serious infectious disease, the risk of leprosy as contagion was very low.
This leads to the question of why, despite the very limited infectiousness, what made extreme isolation policy possible only in the case of leprosy? Previous studies detailed the political process of enactment of the law but did not deal with this simple question.
In this paper, I attempt to demonstrate the socioeconomic background of the policy especially in the view of social patterns of occurrence of leprosy and patient's accessibility to medical care by using the primary statistics from the pre-war period.

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Considering the “Tojisha” (the person concerned) in the Problem of “hikikomori”

Teppei Sekimizu

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 109-120
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.109

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This paper considers who is “Tojisha” (the person concerned) in the problem of “hikikomori” (socially withdrawn Japanese youth). Through critical reconsideration of the definition of “Tojisha” by Ueno Chizuko, it becomes clear that “Tojisha” by Ueno means individuals who recognize and identify themselves as “hikikomori” with respect to their own needs. Then we examine the “Tojisha” in the “hikikomori” problem and point out that family needs are much more expressed than the needs of those who experience “hikikomori”. Finally, we discuss in what meaning socially withdrawn youth themselves are “Tojisha” and we conclude that we can regard the “hikikomori” subjects as “Tojisha” with an alternative formulation of “Tojisha”: ”the subjects who take their experiences not as something anonymous and but as their own experiences”.

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The Analysis of the Rhetorics of Counterclaim on HIV/AIDS in 1990's Japan

From the Discourses of Teiji Furuhashi (1960–1995) and Other “Male Homosexuals”

Keiko Takeda

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 121-132
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.121

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Teiji Furuhashi revealed his HIV-positive status to his friends by “the letter” in October, 1992. This revelation started grass-roots movement in Kyoto, Japan. This paper investigates why though he let only about 20 friends know his HIV-positive status the letter sparked movements such as those associated with multiple identities that were not limited to the HIV/AIDS. In what way is the rhetoric of of Furuhashi's counter claim making unique? This paper suggests that Furuhashi's counter claiming had such an impact because it used a motif that problematized not only HIV/AIDS or male homosexuality and a rhetoric based on comradeship.
Furthermore, rather than identifying himself as a gay male homosexual, he identified himself as an artist. Therefore, this allowed movement participants to conflate intimate internal personal relationships and make rhetorical links among various sexual/gender identities.

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National Identity in Postwar Japan and the Nikkeijin:

Focusing on Japanese Technical Cooperation Policies toward Latin America in the 1960 and 1970s

Minkyung Choi

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 133-143
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.133

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In the 1960s and 1970s as consequence of postwar economic growth, Japan's emigration and ODA policies were reorganized. With a decline in the number of emigrants from Japan and an increase in international demands for a greater ODA contribution, Japan linked its technical cooperation policies toward Latin America with emigration policies under the logic of ‘International Cooperation’, an important strategy for postwar Japan to make a return to international society through performing a desired function. In this process, JICA was established and the Japanese Diaspora ‘Nikkeijin’ were reborn as ‘bridges’ between Japan and Latin America States. Here, Nikkeijin became more ambiguous beings for homeland Japan. While Nikkeijin were ethnically connected to Japan, their position as members of Latin America States that were recipients of Japanese aid became clearer.

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Reflection on Relation between Company and Individual

An Analysis of Discourse on “Company Man” in 1970–2000's

Muneto Nakagawa

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 144-155
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.144

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Investing the relationship between the company and the individual has become more important. This paper examines changes in the discourse on “the company man” based on articles published between 1978 and 2007. The results are as follows. First, the period of the discourse on “company man” consists of two parts. Second, in the early part of the period, the major themes were criticism of the employment system and calls for a reduction of working hours. Third, In the latter part of the period, the themes were volunteerism, the engagement in local activity, and the return to the family. These themes show the idea that individual autonomy could only be achieved outside of the company.

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Intellectuals in Postwar Japan and Their Modes of Address

On Fujita Shozo's Theoretical Thought about Rhetoric and Reading

Takahito Niikura

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 156-167
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.156

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The article is intended to shed light on the theory of rhetoric in the context of social science in postwar Japan through a close reading of Fujita Shozo, a leading disciple of Maruyama Masao. By virtue of his analysis of Japanese militaristic imperialism, Maruyama had been regarded as a representative intellectual of the postwar period of Japan. In 1969, however, in the midst of the surge of the student movement, he was criticized as a representative of the Establishment. At the same time, Fujita attempted to reconstruct the methodology that he had inherited from Maruyama in order to respond to the social transformation catalyzed by the rapid economic growth. Considering the theoretical continuity and discontinuity between Fujita and Maruyama, this article scrutinizes the problem of rhetoric in the context of the sociology of the intellectuals

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Identity Management by Adoptees Regarding Their Biological Parents

Yoko Nobe

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 168-179
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.168

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This paper analyzes how adoptees manage their identity with respect to their biological parents. Previous studies in Japan based on Erik Erikson's psychology of the self theory focus primarily on “telling the truth” by adoptive parents. These studies, however, have not analyzed a diversity of identity management strategies not have they focused much attention on socio-cultural factors. To compensate for this lack, this paper 1) focuses on adoptees experience post “telling” and 2) examines the interaction between self and others such as adoptive and birth parents. Through intensive interviews of ten adoptees, several cases imply that we should reconsider the trend to uniting a child's biological origins and identity.

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“Trust” in the Japanese Magazine Articles of Medicine, Education, and Politics

Yosuke Hatakeyama

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 180-191
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.180

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This paper clarifies how “trust” has been described in Japanese magazine articles of three domains—medicine education, and politics. By using the National Diet Library Online Public Access Catalog, I collected the magazine articles that included “trust” in the article title. I classified these articles on the basis of the object of trust: person, system, or thing. Analysis of these articles revealed the following: (1) the earlier the subject of trust started appearing in a domain, the lower was the trust shown in that domain currently, and (2) before and after the turn of the century, the proportion change of the number of the classified articles was different in each the domain. In conclusion, to investigate the usage of trust is to examin the imagination of the sources of social order in the domain.

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Is Fair Trade being Commercialized?

An Analysis the Change of the Relation between Commerce and Movement

Yousuke Hatayama

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 192-203
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.192

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Fair trade is known as a new movement to solve the problem of poverty in developing countries. In Japan, this movement started as an alternative to compete against the capitalistic market system in the 80s. But now, it seems to be closely connected with commercialism and the mainstream market. M. Renard interpreted this situation as being “reabsorbed by the market”. Therefore this article attempts to analyze the present condition of fair trade in Japan using the original framework. From the analysis, it can be seen that the “commerce-movement” binary model is not necessarily applicable and that Japanese fair trade is tending to be paradoxically “neoliberalized”.

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Did Consumerist Go Voting?

Citizen-Consumer and Political Citizenship

Toshihiro Mizuhara, Takuyuki Terashima

Article type: Article
2011 Volume 2011 Issue 24 Pages 204-213
Published: October 01, 2011
Released on J-STAGE: June 12, 2015

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5690/kantoh.2011.204

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The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between consumerism and political citizenship by analyzing social survey data. Consumerism has been considered to be at odds with citizenship. But now consumerism seems to be becoming more diverse and some consumerist behavior has social relevance. Therefore, the relationship between consumerism and political citizenship is assumed to be diverse depending on consumerist attitudes. First of all, we reveal by factor analysis of consumerist-attitudinal scale three salient factors named “conspicuous,” “paranoiac,” and “quality-oriented.” Next, employing logistic regression analysis, we estimate the effect of those factors on the political citizenship variables. In conclusion, it is postulated that “conspicuous” weakens political citizenship and “paranoiac,” and “quality-oriented” enhance it as a rule.

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