Civil Society and Social Change in Contemporary Japan

Korakuen campus, autumn term, Tuesday 4:35~6:05

This seminar will position contemporary Japanese society within current critical debates in the social and human sciences, drawing upon work in the fields of sociology, anthropology, international relations, cultural and media studies, and literary theory, among others. Students will read and discuss a variety of texts that directly address questions related to contemporary Japanese society, and prepare a seminar project that demonstrates serious engagement with the texts under discussion. A final examination will aim to ensure acquaintance with the central understandings of the texts and the discussions that grew from them.

The minimum requirements for passing are attentive presence at all seminar meetings and timely completion of all assignments. Assuming these basics, the percentages for determining grades will be as follows:

active participation: 30%
seminar project: 40%
final examination: 30%

In the first three weeks of the term the seminar will read together and discuss selections from recent critical work in English. Following this, in weeks four to eleven, each student will focus on a particular topic drawn from within the larger context of the seminar, and texts will be student-selected, in either Japanese or English.

The texts for the first three weeks will include selections from some of the following and related works:

Clammer, John (2001). Japan and Its Others: Globalization, Difference and the Critique of Modernity. Melbourne: Trans Pacific.

Eades, J. S., Tom Gill, and Harumi Befu, eds. (2000). Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan. Melbourne: Trans Pacific.

Iriye, Akira (1992). China and Japan in the Global Setting. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Miyoshi, Masao, and H. D. Harootunian, eds. (1989). Postmodernism and Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.

Miyoshi, Masao, and H. D. Harootunian, eds. (1993). Japan in the World. Durham: Duke University Press.

Schwartz, Frank J., and Susan J. Pharr (2003). The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sugimoto, Yoshio, and Johann P. Arnason (1995). Japanese Encounters with Postmodernity. London: Kegan Paul.

Ueno, Chizuko (2004). Nationalism and Gender, translated by Beverley Yamamoto. Melbourne: Trans Pacific.