Postmodernity includes globalism, consumerism, the fragmentation of authority, and the commodification of knowledge. In the postmodern culture, people have rejected the grand progress, universal stories and paradigms such as religion, conventional philosophy, capitalism and gender that have defined culture and behavior in the past, and have instead begun to organize their cultural and social life around a variety of more local and sub-cultural ideologies, including “civic engagement.”

The aim of the project is to investigate emerging forms of civic engagement in Japan and Asia, comparing the involvement of middle-aged generations with younger generations. We will also investigate whether electronic networks such as the internet and mobile phone text messaging have encouraged—or discouraged—civic engagement.

1. Focus:

 In the first year, we will conduct case studies of civic engagement in Japan: Are such civic engagements related to the new movement of community development (machizukuri)? How are social-welfare and health care programs for subalterns (e.g., the homeless, people on welfare, and migrant workers) initiated by the younger generation? How is global political consumerism, i.e., buying or boycotting of products and services for political and ethical reasons, related to people’s consciousness of civic engagement?

2. The approach:

Several claims are heard that civic engagement in Japan is on the rise, although empirical studies on the topic are few and mostly in early stages. Theoretically the studies depart from sociology and political science and assert the younger generation is changing the process of socialization, life-course goal setting and the development of social capital by moving towards “self-socialization,” i.e., reversibility of choices, loose social connections and development of non-permanent institutions. Assuming this is largely true, we need to think about non-traditional modes of research including web-related methods. With this in mind, and in order to attract wider audiences including academic and nonacademic participants, we will develop an interactive, research-based, internet website. The site will allow anyone to comment on the issues we are studying—as we study them—and engage in open-ended discussions. At the same time, we will use traditional research methods including intensive interviews focusing on participants from the “intersection” of nonprofit organization and the local government.  

3. The Collaboration between Local Government and Grassroots Citizen Networks in Japan.

Devolution is the effort to make national governments smaller by spinning many activities off to local governments (and to “private enterprise”). Although the motives may include making government more accountable, mostly devolution is an attempt to cut taxes by cutting government spending, and local governments have been saddled with an increased demand for social, human, health and welfare services without the tax base to do so.

The unintended results of devolution can be disastrous as Americans learned in the wake Hurricane Katrina. However, devolution has also provided an opportunity for increased civic engagement as local governments have turned to volunteer based non-profit organizations for help. Sometimes, government agencies have tried to exploit non-profits by getting volunteers to replace paid workers. However, there are many examples of local governments establishing successful collaborative partnerships with non-profits. We will examine how this emerging partnership between the government sector and the independent sector has changed civic society in Japan by encouraging civic participation in community affairs.

Plan for 2006-2007:

Background: In the days immediately following the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, the central government was frozen with indecision and unable to respond to this enormous disaster. Fortunately, thousands of people, usually members of small unrecognized associations of citizens from around the country mobilized and provided the bulk emergency services. Overnight, the term “civic society” became popular with the media and, by many accounts, a dynamic and growing non-profit movement arose from the ashes of Kobe. The number of “NPOs” and the number of participating volunteers has grown dramatically.  

A history of Japan’s civic society: Sometimes lost in post earthquake analyses is the fact that the private citizens who so quickly and effectively responded to the emergency were organized by pre-existing organizations. With this in mind, we will not only look at how the NPO movement that originated from “Hanshin” has influenced the current civic movement in Japan, but we will also examine the influence of long standing civic and social justice organizations, some of which trace their origins to pre-war Japan. We will, for instance, study the life history of an organizer who started as a communist “agitator” in the pre-war period, became the first “day-laborers’’ union organizer in the 1950s-60s, and then became an organizer of a consumers coop in western Japan in the 1970s and 80s.  His life history, we posit, will trace and illuminate the transition of the Japanese civic movement from the fringes to the mainstream. 

Problems faced by Community Leaders:  After the 1995 Hanshin earthquake, Kobe become the center of civic engagement in Japan, involving many ‘new techno-citizens’. But at a closer look, the Kobe experience shows many of the dilemmas and contradictions common to Japanese civic engagement: conflicts between citizens’ organizations and the local government offices; competition between civic organizations; a lack of funds and resources for citizens organizations to execute their plans, etc. Using materials from Kobe machizukuri consultants who are also community organizers, we will demonstrate how local community leaders (such as community-based architects and community leaders) succeeded (or failed) in rebuilding the community.

The New Poor and Homeless:  Globalization and devolution have left many behind in the economic dust. Thousands of these invisible citizens, often jobless men without families, live in “homeless encampments” hidden from view. In Yokohama and Tokyo, these “subalterns” have been confined to two urban flop-house areas, Sanya (in Tokyo) and Kotobukicho (in Yokohama). We will study how citizens-based healthcare networks and mutual help organizations are working in collaboration with the local government to provide services to the several thousand residents of these two neighborhoods.  

We will also study some globalized grassroots collaborative efforts between local governments and citizens groups cross-cutting state borders. For example, we will study such efforts between Toga village in Toyama prefecture and a Nepalese village.

2007-2008:  

 In the second year of this project, we will examine some parallel examples of other Asian societies. Have recent economic expansion and state decentralization created new spheres of civic engagement in these countries? What has been the role of local government in instigating citizens’ grassroots actions? What kind of new local leaders are emerging from these new community organizations?  How crucial is the role of local government officials in promoting grassroots democracy? What are the roles of the local government officials as coordinator cum-community organizers? Are there any difference between the so-called North-American and European model of civic society and those of the burgeoning Asian societies?

Meetings

FY 2008

・1３th meeting for publication 11 Feb 09

・12th meeting for publication 14 Dec 08

・11th meeting for publication 14 Sep 08

FY 2007

・10th　meeting in MINPAKU 8 & 9 Feb 08

・９ｔｈ meeting in Komazawa University, Tokyo 18 Jan 08

・8th Meeting in MINPAKU 23 Nov. 07

・7th meeting in Hokkaido 28 & 29 Aug. 07　

・６ｔｈ　Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ＭＩＮＰＡＫＵ 30 June & 1July 07

FY2006

・5th Meeting In MINPAKU 17 & 18 Feb 2008

・4th meeting in Komazawa University, Tokyo 27&28 Jan. 2007　

・３rd Meeting in Fukuoka, 25, 26/12/2006

・2nd Meeting 18, 19 /11/2006

・1st meeting in MINPAKU 7&8 Oct. 2006

Memo

July01/07
May 18/07

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