Soziale Bewegungen in Japan [Social Movements in Japan], edited by Claudia Derichs and Anja Osiander, (Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens Hamburg [Reports from the Society for Studies on East Asian Nature and Ethnities, Hamburg], vol. 128) Hamburg
1998.
ISBN 3-928463-63-2
This volume is a result of an interdisciplinary study group of authors working in the field of social science on Japan. The authors' contributions display approaches from political science, anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, and history. The volume provides a remarkable amount of survey data and analyses, most of which have not been published in other languages yet - be it in Japanese or non-Japanese tongue. Case studies cover the women's movement, the burakumin liberation movement, the consumer movement, environmental groups, utopian settlements, the struggle of victims of HIV infection and of the mercury poisoning in Minamata, and gay and lesbian groups. They are complemented by survey articles on historical precedents to postwar developments, on theoretical concepts, and on the discussion among Japanese sociologists.
The information presented here shows that the study of social movements means much more than "just another" diversification of a branch of the social sciences. Social movements relate to a particular current of political sociology and the study of democracy. But they also form a vantage point from where the "real big" questions of social research can be approached. Patricia MacLachlan, in her chapter to this volume, puts it in a nutshell: The research on social movements is 'as much a snapshot of the political and social system write large as it is a case study of networks of grassroots citizens' movements.'
article in English:
MACLACHLAN, Patricia:
"The Postwar Japanese Consumer Movement - the Impact of History and Institutions", pp. 173-198.
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