現代日本社会

クロ

カー

・ロバー

ト（

総合政策学部教授）

現代日本社会

DEFINING ‘SOCIETY’

!   a geographical, political and cultural entity of a group of people

!   geographical – occupying a particular geographical space

!   political – organized by political institutions

!   cultural – sharing a culture(s)

!   a group of people – or groupS of people

SOURCES

!   sociology – how Japan is structured e.g. gender, class, families

!   anthropology – Japanese cultural practices e.g. communication, socialization & enculturation, relationships i.e. a more holistic explanation of Japanese culture

!   economics – how the market for goods and services (including labour) affects Japanese people’s lives i.e. how it structures their interactions

!   geography – how the geography of the Japanese archipelago affects and shapes people’s lives

!   psychology – how the individual Japanese person thinks, feels, decides

!   literature – how Japanese people represent themselves

DISCUSSION

!   What is your image of the ‘typical’ Japanese teenager?

!   What is your image of the ‘typical’ adult Japanese person?

!   How diverse do you think that Japan is as a society? Why do you think that?

!   In what ways is Japan a ‘diverse’ country?

AVOID … !   stereotyping – reducing Japanese society to formulaic,

oversimplified images, concepts or statements

!   marginalizing – ignoring Japan’s cultural diversity

! essentializing – assuming that all Japanese people are exactly the same, and act and think in the same way

!   masculinizing – only looking at Japan through men’s perspectives and experiences

!   being ahistorical – assuming that Japan has always been the way that it is now, and that it always will be

! orientalizing – assuming that Japan is completely unique

DEFINING CULTURE

!   “Culture is the learned, shared understandings among a group of people about how to behave and what everything means.” !   learned: it is not instinctual. People teach each other, imitate each other,

correct each other, and so come to share a culture.

!   shared: not just what one person does, but what a group of people does.

!   understandings: culture is in people’s minds, and includes both explicit knowledge and implicit knowledge.

!   a group of people: can be small (a family) or large (a nation).

!   how to behave: culture guides our actions, sometimes as rules and knowledge that you’re conscious of, and sometimes as habits that you’ve picked up unconsciously by imitating those around you.

!   what everything means: about what is good or right to do and to be, as well as what is bad and wrong – which shapes how people behave.

DEFINING CULTURE !   From this perspective, culture means:

!   communities (groups of people, which are constantly changing) …

!   made up of individual people (similar in some ways, unique in some ways) …

!   using and constructing cultural products (things) …

!   while engaged in existing and emerging cultural practices (ways of doing).

!   These new practices and products develop from and contribute to the development of cultural perspectives (ways of understanding the world).

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

COMMUNITIES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

COMMUNITIES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

COMMUNITIES

!   COMMUNITIES, or groups, vary in size: !   broad, amorphous communities – national culture, language,

gender, race, religion, socio-economic class, or generation

!   more narrowly defined groups – a local community group, a university club, a company, a family

!   Communities are not isolated, but co-exist with other communities. They are in different relationships with one another: separation, cooperation, collaboration, conflict – and these change over time.

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PEOPLE CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PEOPLE CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PEOPLE

!   PEOPLE are the individual members who embody the culture and its communities in unique ways.

!   Each person is a distinct mix of having individual experiences on the one hand and belonging to a number of communities on the other.

!   Culture resides both in the individual members of the culture and also in the various social groups or communities that people form. That is, culture is both individual and collective – it is both psychological and social.

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRODUCTS CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRODUCTS CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRODUCTS CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRODUCTS CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRODUCTS

!   PRODUCTS are things used by the people of the culture.

!   Products can include …: !   … more tangible, physical things (called ‘material culture’):

!   the things we wear e.g. clothes, accessories

!   the tools we use to live and work e.g. iPads, computers

!   the spaces we live and work in e.g. homes, shops, offices

!   the things we use for entertainment e.g. cards, iPods

!   … to less tangible things, like: !   music

!   language

!   art

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRACTICES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRACTICES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRACTICES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PRACTICES

!   PRACTICES are actions and interactions that members of the culture carry out, individually or with others.

!   Practices focus on what people do, how people interact with each other, and what language (verbal and non-verbal) people use to do so.

!   Some practices are considered appropriate, and some are considered inappropriate (including taboos). Knowing how to behave appropriately marks membership of particular communities.

!   Some practices change over time, but some do not.

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

THE ICEBERG OF CULTURE

THE ICEBERG OF CULTURE

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

VISIBLE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INVISIBLE

KNOWING WHO

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

VISIBLE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INVISIBLE

KNOWING WHAT

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

VISIBLE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INVISIBLE

KNOWING HOW

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

VISIBLE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INVISIBLE

KNOWING WHY

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

VISIBLE

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INVISIBLE

PERSPECTIVES

!   PERSPECTIVES represent: !   perceptions

!   values and beliefs

!   and attitudes

!   … that underlie cultural products, and guide people and communities in the practices of their culture(s).

!   Perspectives can be explicit, but they are often implicit, even outside conscious awareness.

!   Perspectives provide meaning to people’s lives, and constitute a unique outlook or orientation toward life – a worldview.

CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PERSPECTIVES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PERSPECTIVES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PERSPECTIVES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PERSPECTIVES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

PERSPECTIVES CULTURE

PRODUCTS PRACTICES

PEOPLE

PERSPECTIVES

COMMUNITIES

現代日本

クロ

カー

・ロバー

ト（

総合政策学部教授）