The Annual of the Society of Economic Sociology
Online ISSN : 2189-7328
Print ISSN : 0918-3116
Volume 42
Displaying 1-13 of 13 articles from this issue
Special Lecture
  • A Community Support Project through Community Music Therapy
    Hiroko Kimura
    2020 Volume 42 Pages 5-13
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    In the age of globalism, to live together with diverse people is a pressing issue. However, the growing disparity of society due to economic inequality makes it more difficult to realize. Music therapy has aimed to help people with disabilities to play a more active part in society since the 1980s. Community Music Therapy emerged in Europe with the aim of changing not people but society in general in order to be more accessible for those with disabilities. Community Music Therapy applies principles of social justice and equality and works within communities in order to realize an inclusive society through “Musicking.” Musicking is an innate ability of human being to perform music, regardless of talent or musical skills. It involves not only the performance of and listening to music but also various activities that enable music to happen, including management of concerts, advertising of music events, backstage work and so on. Community Music Therapy aims to convey the voices of people who suffer from exclusion and isolation to society and its policy lies in the belief that every human being has right to live with dignity without been excluded from community. It can be defined as a (small) social change for creating a more free and equal society through music, which is a pleasant medium for all.
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Symposium: Economic Sociology of Bonds
Round Table Session: New Perspectives on Consumer-Citizen Society (Refereed)
  • A Renovation of Criticism of Consumerism
    Yosuke Hatayama
    2020 Volume 42 Pages 55-65
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    This paper aims to consider an implication of ethical consumption as a pursuit of self-interests from the perspective of Kate Soper's concept “alternative hedonism.” Ethical consumption has been regarded as an expression of anti-consumerism, but Soper recognizes that ethical consumers experience the intrinsic pleasure in their environmental and social preservations. Soper emphasizes that ethical consumption should be understood on the base of the theory of hedonism rather than asceticism, however it does not mean maintain of existing consumerism but renovation of the criticism of consumerism. This paper examines the theoretical structure of alternative hedonism through Soper's criticisms of Amartya Sen and Theodor Adorno. In the criticism of Sen, Soper insists that citizenship and individual living standard should not be separated but should understand the concept of living standard in the term of quality of life and regard environmental and social consideration as an improvement of the living standard. Then, in the criticism of Adorno, Soper supports the Adorno's hedonistic position against modern consumerism but points out that he excludes any personal experiences and assume “true&rldquo; need which located in the sublime culture. Soper attempts “de-naturalization” of Adorno's hedonism through the studies about symbolism and provides the perspective that the pleasure of ethical consumption is contiguous with esthetics of ordinary and banal everyday consumption. The perspective of alternative hedonism, therefore, has an implication that ethical consumption would play an important role in steady-state economy but based on consumer's pursuit of own pleasure.
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Free Subject Articles (Refereed)
  • Shiomi Kondo
    2020 Volume 42 Pages 74-83
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    Integrated reporting (IR) emerged as a new form of corporate reporting that calls for consistent disclosure of financial and non-financial information. In 2013, the International ‹IR› Framework was released with the aim of stabilizing global finance and rebuilding a sustainable economy and society. Previous corporate reporting focused on short-term decision-making by investors and other stakeholders. However, this framework calls for “communication with companies on the creation value process based on the medium- to long-term perspective through integrated reports with stakeholders” (IIRC, 2013, p.8). We focus on the “investment decision usefulness of integrated reporting” as an issue in IR research. Previous accounting studies concentrate on “value relevance” to examine the usefulness of investment decisions in financial reporting. However, research on the value relevance of integrated reports is still inadequate, and further research is needed for IR to function as a corporate report in line with financial reporting. In this study, we consider the usefulness of IR for investment decisions from sociology perspective, with the assumption that it is difficult to obtain a new suggestion. We advance the theoretical research based on sociological methods by the German sociologist N. Luhmann. First, we capture accounting from Luhmann's theoretical perspective by re-describing accounting as an accounting system, and confirm the position of IR in the accounting system. Second, we consider the problem of “investment decision usefulness of integrated reporting” from the perspective of communication in the accounting system, and investigate the problems hidden within integrated reports.
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  • Based on the Support Needs of Double Caregiver
    Keiko Sawada
    2020 Volume 42 Pages 84-96
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    A group interview survey was conducted on 15 women in their thirties to fifties who are currently in double care or have experience in the past to make a concrete examination of the support system and development based on the needs of double care parties. From the analysis results, it was found that the double care parties want to realize a “care balance that stabilizes the life of the whole family” by providing support and continuous external services to improve self-help ability. It is desirable to build a model of institutional support and cooperation/collaboration allows various sections to develop integrally while sharing issues and purposes. In addition, it is necessary to improve the process leading to the use of services, to provide an early and continuous intervention of a cross-sectional consultation support team, and to support an environment in which the family can share the responsibility and role of care.
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  • The Study of Micro Libraries' Function in “forging community (Tsunagu) Town Project” Proposed by NTT Urban Development Corporation
    Yoshimitsu Isoi
    2020 Volume 42 Pages 97-109
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: April 01, 2021
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS
    In recent years, the number of “elderly housing with life support service (hereinafter, this is called “elderly housing”)” has been increased under subsidiary programs supported by the national government. NTT Urban Development Corporation has promoted a project to build an apartment for rent and an elderly housing in the same area, which could realize multi-generational community there. Furthermore, in order to forge local community, a micro library called “machi-library” has been set up in a cafe anyone can access to, which has been established in the elderly housing. This thesis aims to provide analysis of how the machi-library influences the residents' social behavior and mindset, especially focusing on community ties in the elderly housing area, and what roles this machi-library plays there. I performed a series of methods to verify my study: analyzing observations on the library, taking a survey from the users (both residents and non-residents) and monitoring, and hearing with the developers. As a result, I have found that forging community ties in the elderly housing requires an environment with no social roles/status nor special interests involved. No matter how you old, people tend to look for relationships not being bothered with social roles/status nor special interests; however, their social activities have been reduced due to decreased strength with aging. Therefore, the elderly people who have less opportunity to meet people, have expected the library as a place for an encounter other than social welfare staff. Considering the situation, I have found that a “community hub,” a person facilitating communications among people should play a very important role to function the community. Additionally, the developer has evaluated the idea that deploying micro libraries to their commodities should be profitable from the business point of view. To sum up, it is clear that investments to community facilities and its human resources in elderly housings could contribute to building customer satisfaction with residents and promote their commodities in the market. In addition to this, micro libraries should play a focal role to forge open community in society.
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