Notes for Invited Lecturers and Discussants, Policy Studies Forum / Cultural Interaction in East Asia, Cultural Studies Open Seminar, Chuo University Graduate School of Policy Studies, Autumn~Winter 2004

This page is intended to acquaint invited lecturers and discussants with the Policy Studies Forum and Cultural Studies Open Seminar at the Chuo University Graduate School, Tokyo. Both the Forum and the Open Seminar are organised by David Ewick and Modjtaba Sadria, Chuo University Faculty of Policy Studies, as part of an ongoing project in which we are exploring the nature and content of cultural change.

Our central thesis is that cultural change emerges from within contexts in which new meanings have been created, and that the power to create meaning does not, as is usually supposed, lie within the established order of a social structure (with the ‘elite’ or ‘the establishment’, in other words) but rather at its peripheries, borders, and margins. Our understanding is that the central structures of a society are held together by a tightly intertwined, powerful, and normative network of interests that limits rather than facilitates the freedom to create meaning, and that it is rather at the peripheries, where the entrenched structures of power are not so thick, that the possibility of the creation of new meaning is rich.

Our model in this way proposes that cultural change is effected by those who have the capacities of the elite but no illusion of power, those who have developed the capabilities of the centre but who choose to work at the margins. Our aim is to substantiate this understanding qualitatively by means of the lectures of our guests, and eventually to bring the work of the Forum and the Open Seminar together in the form of a published collection of essays.

The theme of the Policy Studies Forum is Cultural Interaction in East Asia. The Cultural Studies Open Seminar will explore the theoretical and practical nature of the process of cultural change itself. Guests in either are invited to position their own work within these frames in any way that seems productive, interesting, or enjoyable. A general description of the Policy Studies Forum, including a supplemental reading list that has been provided to students, may be found here, of the Cultural Studies Open Seminar here. Both may be downloaded in .pdf format by clicking here.

Many thanks in advance for your interest in this joint project. Should you have questions or comments about either the Forum or the Seminar you may contact David Ewick by clicking , Modjtaba Sadria .