The Annual of the Society of Economic Sociology
Online ISSN : 2189-7328
Print ISSN : 0918-3116
Volume 40
Displaying 1-14 of 14 articles from this issue
Symposium: Economic Sociology of Working
Semi-Symposium Articles (Refereed)
  • Tsutomu Hashimoto
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 58-67
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The idea of liberalism, including Keynesian-type welfare state model, has not regarded “meaningful work” as a target of distribution. However, I would like to show a path to respond to this distribution problem of “meaningful work” from a liberal perspective. First, I shall point out that Marxists' ideas face some difficulties of the distribution of meaningful work. Second, I shall examine J. Rawls' and M. Walzer's responses to meaningful work distribution. Third, I shall raise my viewpoint of liberalism through examination of the concept of meaning. Last, I shall clarify policy implications of my standpoint. Through the above, I would like to show that a certain type of liberalism can propose how we can distribute “meaningful work.”
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  • Rethinking Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem Eichmann in Jerusalem
    Baku Momoki
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 68-78
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem is famous for the concept of the banality of evil and thoughtlessness. This book is said to be the turning point that redirected Arendt's interest from Vita Activa to The Life of the Mind and has been primarily studied from the perspective of thinking and judgement. However, this paper examines the book differently, perceiving Eichmann as a Laborer. Arendt argued that totalitarianism was supported by animal laborance (laboring animal), appearing when labor became the primary activity in modern society. Eichmann was also a diligent laborer who obeyed the orders of superiors without employing his own thinking and judgement. Eichmann's case can be analyzed from the perspective of labor, connecting it with her discussion of The Human Condition (Vita Activa).  However, it is incorrect to state that Eichmann consistently engaged in animal laborance since he joined the Nazis. Between 1933 and 1941, Eichmann made every effort to accomplish the Jewish emigration project to Jerusalem. During this period, he engaged in work rather than labor in Arendt's terms because he assumed the role of an emigration expert possessing superior ability and exceptional skill. He formulated an elaborate plan, negotiated with the numerous persons concerned, and put it into practice. However, when Hitler issued the order to commit Jewish atrocities in 1941, the emigration plan was suspended. Eichmann despaired and lost his joy in work, initiatives, and interests. From this point, he turned into animal laborance, blindly following the totalitarian movement.  In conclusion, we should discontinue the enlargement of the realm of labor and retrieve the realm of work and activity in order to prevent the appearance of totalitarianism. We require both action and work for public reconstruction in order to resist totalitarianism.
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Free Subject Articles (Refereed)
  • Kazuo Inamori's “Philosophy” and Masao Ogura's “Management”
    kenji Hirate
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 94-105
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Building upon the renewal of business ethics form the perspective of Thomistic Natural Law Theory in the wake of “The Vocation of the Business Leader,” this essay offers a contemporary explanation of business leadership. The missions of business Leaders are to engage the global economic and financial world on the basis of human dignity and the common good, supported by the spirit of solidarity and the principle of subsidiarity. This reflection offers business leaders three practical principles, (1) the principle of meeting the needs of the world through the creation and development of goods and services, (2) the principle of organising good and productive work, (3) the principle of creating sustainable wealth and distributing it justly. The author confirms that these principles comport with the management theories of two entrepreneurs in Japan, Kazuo Inamori (1932- )who was a founder of KYOCERA Corporation and Masao Ogura (1924~2005)who created strategic system of door-to-door parcel delivery service, TAKYUBIN.
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  • The Modern Possibility of the Theory of Justice in Thomas Aquinas
    Wataru Sasaki
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 106-116
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    According to Thomas Aquinas, it is proper to justice, as compared with the other virtues, to direct man in his relations with others. And the relations with others may happen in two ways: first as regards his relation with individuals, and secondly as regards his relations with others in general. In the case of the latter, it is identified with the whole community, and it is evident to that community as parts to a whole. So others as individuals may be referable to others in general, and all acts of virtue can pertain to justice, in so far as it directs man to the common good.  On the other hand, according to Martha C. Nussbaum, we need to face the issues of justice involved in our treatment of people with physical and mental impairments, of all world citizens, and of nonhuman animals. Her conclusion is not that we should reject Rawls's theory, but that we should keep working on alternative theories, that is, we should take a capabilities approach.  The capabilities approach takes its start from the Aristotelian/Marxian conception of the human being as a social and political being, who finds fulfillment in relations with others. And the good of others is not just a constraint on this person's pursuit of her own good; it is a part of her good. In the expansion of the meaning of others and the common good, there may be the possibility of Aquinas’s theory of justice.
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  • The opinions of Hasegawa Nyozekan and Ishibashi Tanzan
    Takahide Niimi
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 117-128
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the ideological background of the “World Federal Movement” in Japan. In Japan after the Second World War, in order to find out what kind of discussion about the World Federation, Hasegawa Nyozekan (journalist, 1875-1969) and Ishibashi Tanzan's (1884-1973, journalist, prime minister) opinions on the World Federation were studied. As a result, it became clear that both of them had made enthusiastic proposals to the World Federation. Aspects common to both were first aiming to realize the World Federation, second admitting the military power monitored universally by the World Federation, and third focusing on deepening interdependence on a global scale. On these ideas, both had a positive attitude to the Post-war Constitution of Japan. Both sympathized with New Liberalism, and so were positive about World Federalism.
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  • Keiko Sawada, Mariko Ito
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 129-140
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The purpose of this study is to consider how to the requested support and issue by approaching the experience world of those who do double care. Therefore, a interview survey was conducted on six women in their 30's to 40's who do double care, after that continuous comparative analysis using qualitative coding was carried out. Based on the result of the survey, we made recommendations on the importance of (1) visiting type counselong support like accompanying, (2) a service provision system based on the eyes of family caregivers, (3) social understanding for double care.
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  • Seiichi Matsukawa, Yosuke Sekiguchi, kazuko Akiyama
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 141-155
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    This study aims to explore the factors affecting the financial self-efficacy of children on the basis of the survey data of 910 sixth-graders. The variables to be examined concern parental involvement for children's financial socialization, conversation between parents and children, children's financial literacy and so forth. The OLS regression models are estimated by gender in order to clarify the gendered structure of financial socialization. The way in which parents give pocket money and the manner to manage pocket money have no statistical significance in neither male nor female models; parental disciplinary practices at financial behaviors have no impact on children's financial self-efficacy. While none of the types of conversations between parents and children is statistically significant in male models, female models show a significant figure only on the conversation about one's own career expectation. There exists gender difference in the influence of the degree of understanding of economic terms as well. In sum, the results suggest that financial socialization processes through which children's financial self-efficacy is facilitated have a different structure by gender under the influence of gender role consciousness in home environment.
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  • Through a Theoretical Corollary of Non-Consumerism
    Koji Suzuki
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 156-165
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Consumer society has been discussed for a long time in the theoretical framework of a dichotomy between consumerism and anti-consumerism. Consumerism can be defined as personal mentalities and/or social trends actively pursuing quantitative expansion or qualitative sophistication of consumption activities. Now the existence of the third stance for consumption is pointed out theoretically. It is called non-consumerism, which is characterized by having the social effect to stabilize consumer lifestyle. The aim of this paper is to empirically demonstrate that cleanliness has some stabilizing effects on consumer lifestyle through estrangement from purchasing activities. So, in this regard, cleanliness can be viewed as one of the key factors carrying non-consumerism effects. The data from a survey of consumer life in the 21th century, which was conducted in the Tokyo area in 2016, was used for both a multiple regression analysis and a logistic regression analysis. The both analyses use two cleanliness scales called “organizing cleanliness” and “averting cleanliness” as explanatory variables. The result of analyses suggests that organizing cleanliness has certain, albeit limited, effects in stabilizing consumer lifestyle.
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  • Co-Creation in Automobile Industry
    Kotaro Abe
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 166-175
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Franz (2005) pointed out that many average Americans modified the car as grass root inventor during 1915-1939. Kline and Pinch (1996) illustrated that American rural farmers modified model T as agricultural machine.  After World War 2, so called “Tuner” modified the car and they won the champion in the races. The tuned cars had often beaten other cars including the car that original makers modified. And then, some companies began to collaborate with tuners. They could survive in the automobile industry, although almost other companies could not.  As some researchers like von Hippel (1988, 2005) point out, these user innovations are critical in the industry.  Many researchers and critics insist that in the near future average consumer can design and make the product with new technologies as well as professional companies do. But the history of car modifications demonstrates that average consumer lost the power of modification except simple custom like wheel exchange.
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Contributory Papers (Refereed)
  • An Examination of the Effects of the Variables about Social Contribution and Creativity
    Yosuke Hatayama
    2018 Volume 40 Pages 225-233
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    The aim of this paper is to clarify the profile of the ethical consumer as a “Citizen-consumer.” Those who bought eco-friendly or fair trade products were regarded as consumers who were motivated by social responsibility and political engagement. However, some studies show that such consumers are not necessarily ethical or political, but rather hedonistic and individualistic. This paper, therefore, focuses on “creativity” as an important factor of the ethical consumer. In order to examine what kinds of people purchase ethical products, we analyzed the fair trade consumer's motivation using quantitative data in Tokyo. The result of the analysis demonstrated that the younger ethical consumers tend to be associated with creative life, but without awareness of contribution to society. We can describe the younger ethical consumers as “Citizen-consumer” which pursue a good life for themselves.
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