The aim of this article is to reconstruct and analyse “The Weight of the World” written by Bourdieu et al. from the perspective of criticizing neoliberalism, making it possible to understand the subsequent development of the theory of Bourdieu’s sociology. His criticism of neoliberalism resulted in the proposals of the plan for a “transnational social state” and the thesis of “universalising the conditions of access to the universal.” As a result, Bourdieu’s sociology developed into a new theory of state and the universalisation of culture. This suggests the theorical development of his sociology as “anthropology of power and legitimacy,” which differs from the understanding framework of cultural reproduction theory.

The purpose of this article is to reconsider the sociological implications of socio–analysis in The Weight of the World from the perspective of Bourdieu’s theory of sociological knowledge. The argument begins by drawing the epistemic dimensions of Bourdieu’s theory of sociological knowledge, especially of the notion of socio–analysis. Socio–analysis can fulfil clinical and therapeutical functions by providing the means for a reappropriation of schemes of the perception and appreciation which are at the root of a social misery. Thus socio–analysis grounds the conversion of the gaze on the world and presents possibilities for social agents to comprehend and reappropriate their selves.

We discuss the collective work of a group of researchers directed by Pierre Bourdieu, titled La Misère du Monde in French, which compiles numerous intensive qualitative interviews of ordinary people, some of whom are underprivileged or marginalized. The object of our examinations is to clarify the process of the genesis of this work, and the influence on public opinion of its publication, as well as the philosophical foundation of the method of having an understanding of the necessity of others in the sense of Spinozist philosophy.

The boom in critical urban studies declined in the 2000s, and there has been an increase in the number of empirical urban sociological studies focusing on the interaction between multiple social actors in a local area. This is a shift of the perspective from that focusing on ‘the city’ as a whole system to one that addresses urban local areas. With regard to this shift, the following three points are indicated in the paper. 1) ANT and the infrastructural point of view are now referred to in critical urban studies. 2) Each local area as an object of urban sociological studies contains a particular social issue, such that the objects of the study are turning into workshop-type interactions. 3) As urban planning is beginning to utilize workshops, the logic of workshops is now incorporated into the built environment.

While sociologists do not have a large presence in the practical field of urban development, they are sometimes expected by experts in urban planning to “be familiar with the community and its people.” However, it is not clear what “being familiar with the community and its people” really means. In order to articulate this, we will examine the workshops on radiation risk communication held after the F1NPP accident, where local people were confused by risks and scientific language that were beyond their previous experience, and conflicts within community were apparent. Specifically, two cases will be examined: Roundtable in Kashiwa and Fukushima Dialogue, in which Igarashi and Ando played a central role. These case studies suggest that “being familiar with the community and its people” means interactive ability to reconcile expertise with the needs of the local people based on an in-depth understanding of their reality, as well as an attitude of extracting the local people’s knowledge to integrate it with expertise.

The aim of this paper is to examine the strategy of a sociological description of the urban.

The current project-based development in urban restructuring necessitates the coordination of the interests of multiple stakeholders. Urban restructuring practitioners with interactional expertise, such as ‘urban planning consultants,’ discharge pivotal roles in such coordination processes.

Previous sociological scholarship has described the urban as sets of relationships between human-actors such as the residents of a city. However, this paper proposes to describe the urban based on the movements of urban restructuring practitioners as ‘figures’ and the relationships that exist between the institutional foundation of urban politics, the materiality of urban spaces and the allocation of expertise in urban planning as the ‘ground.’

In this paper, I analyze the governmentality of workshops in town management. “Community Design” proposes methods to take the problems of the town as one’s own and to solve the problems while managing the team by oneself. “Design Thinking” is completely workshop-like, the idea being to feed on the mistakes and criticisms of the process for the next step forward. These elements are incorporated in today’s town management, especially in creative space design. It appears difficult for sociologists to become involved in situations where there is no “outside” of the workshop. However, I think what sociologists can do is offer a standard and ambiguous description.

Prior research examining Japanese nationals’ tolerance toward immigrants have generally conceptualized tolerance from a single perspective. This paper argues that this existing approach overlooks the heterogeneous nature of Japanese nationals’ tolerance. In this study, I provide finer-grained analyses of the tolerance construct by further dividing it into tolerance in public and private spheres to capture its heterogeneity. To do so, I used survey data from Kawasaki City residents to investigate whether structural and cognitive social capital influence tolerance in private and public arenas. The results generally support my hypotheses: Bridging networks, generalized trust, and reciprocity play important roles in improving tolerance in both private and public spheres, whereas bonding networks and close ties with neighbors have negative effects. Also, the effects of structural social capital on tolerance are shown to be mediated by cognitive social capital.

National stereotypes found in Japanese sports media coverage are examined in this study. In the English-speaking world, there are international comparative studies on national stereotypes found in sports. However, no such empirical studies have been conducted in Japan. We therefore conducted the following two analyses of the national stereotypes found in Japanese football magazines. First, we quantitatively analyzed the distribution of stereotypes related to the nationality or playing style of national teams. As a result, we found four patterns: solid defense and counterattack; brilliant technique; great physical abilities; and mental toughness and physical abilities. Second, focusing on African national teams, we found that these teams are often evaluated as having high physical abilities but poor organizational strength.

In this paper, 28 certified nurses working at a home nursing station were surveyed in order to clarify how professionalization is currently being promoted in the field. Among them, the data relating to five certified nurses in wound, ostomy and continence nursing, whose expertise is recognized, were analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that the nurses were not oriented towards a specialized way of working, but were attempting to utilize their expertise in improving the overall level of care by working with other nurses and other professions. Therefore, it is desirable to separate the specialization in education from the specialization in working style, and to provide educational opportunities to acquire specialized knowledge as a way to develop semi-professionals.

Japanese sociology is now losing its uniqueness in interdisciplinary labor studies. This paper aims to highlight the contemporary contribution and future challenges of sociology in labor studies by focusing on industrial sociology. To summarize the historical review in Japan, industrial sociology was established to collaborate with sociologists who have different interests and targets. This process results in industrial sociology having a strong presence within labor studies and causes its fragmentation into several sociological disciplines due to the absence of a theory that connects them. It is suggested that collaboration be revived among sociologists and that thinking about employment relations would lead to the cultivation of a new sociological perspective on labor studies.

The purpose of this study is to examine how recognizing disability can eliminate disadvantages in disability experience by capturing self-recognitions of “Normality” and “Disability” and associated changes in behavior in the narratives of children with developmental disabilities and their parents. Three observations are made: Firstly, with the institutionalization of special needs education, parents’ perceptions of their children’s disabilities were constructed, resulting in a change in behavior. Secondly, differences appear in people’s perception of disability and their behavior based on that perception before and after special needs education. Thirdly, the perception of disability by people living as “normal” people creates a situation where they are unaware of the disadvantages.

The residential concentration of ethnic groups and the accumulation of ethnic businesses have been regarded as a continuous process of developing ethnic communities, and the formation of ethnic tourist attractions is also positioned on this continuum. However, this perspective is being reconsidered because the two aspects of ethnic communities which have sustained it, ethnic ties and spatial cohesion, have been separated. Therefore, this paper examined the Korean community’s influence on the formation of “Shin-Okubo” and demonstrated that the impact of the spatial cohesion of businesses was strong in this case. On the other hand, ethnic ties did not impact the formation strongly, but have recently become important factors for the stable development of “Shin-Okubo.”

The purpose of this paper is to describe the comorbidity of skepticism and dependence on psychiatric diagnoses in terms of methods employed by a patient to adjust to changes in his diagnoses. The sociological perspective of medicalization theory is problematic because it dichotomizes medicine and ordinary life. In addition, this study focuses on the connection between professional and ordinary concepts to describe the activities of a patient in accepting his illness. The study analysis revealed that the patient employs professional and ordinary concepts on a case-to-case basis; it also found that diagnostic concepts do not necessarily suppress the patient’s experience but use it as a resource for reorganizing his experiences in a personal and meaningful manner.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate self-help groups’ (SHG’s) order of interaction in cases where difficulty is encountered in referring to and sharing community narratives. Previous research argued that SHGs were regarded as narrative communities: SHGs provide an alternative identity to participants who transform their personal life stories through conforming to the community narrative. However, Previous research has not focused on the SHGs’ order of interaction itself because it tended to attempt to understand the community narratives of SHGs and how they influenced participants’ life stories. This paper therefore analyses the order of interaction in SHGs where veteran members comprehend and explain the order of interaction to others.

This paper examines the relationship between modernist criticisms of Jodo Shinshu and the Otani-ha reform movement. By examining their relationship, I argue that Otani-ha reformers responded to modernist criticisms, especially to Marxist ones. Marxists criticized Jodo Shinshu groups for their feudal systems, which unfairly exploited people, and demanded that Jodo Shinshu groups should modernize their institution. Otani-ha reformers, who were influenced by Western religious philosophy, responded to their criticisms and discussed the nature of their religious community in post-war Japanese society. Through their discussions and activities, they found it difficult to connect their religious community based on their theology with religious administrative systems.

In this paper, temporary connections due to the movement of people are described by focusing on the characteristics of communication among tourists. The connections formed through corporeal travel are one of the diversified connections that have changed in late modernity. In guesthouses for Japanese tourists in Southeast Asia, tourists participate in temporary and enthusiastic interactions together for a few days. The system of guesthouses accelerates temporary interactions. An ethnographic approach has revealed that tourists seek new encounters and temporary connections rather than lasting connections. Based on theories of the mobilities paradigm developed by John Urry, this paper claims that temporary connections can help tourists gain temporary escape from ordinary life.