Civic Engagement In Contemporary Japan

Author : Henk Vinken
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1441915044
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan written by Henk Vinken and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-25 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civic engagement is a concept of action that has become part of common vocabulary, not only in the West but also in many other regions of the world as well. A growing, yet still small number of scholarly works has recently emerged showing how in Japan citizen activism, volunteering, and social action for a public cause are dev- oping. This present volume is another, and in my view, important addition to the body of knowledge on civic engagement in Japan. The majority of books on related issues in Japan take on the perspective of organized civic life, in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or nonprofit organizations (NPOs): we know quite a number of things about the quantitative trends in these organizations, on their positioning, on their difficulties, and on the institutional contexts in which they have to work. We know relatively little – except for a small number of topical qualitative case studies – on broad issues that relate to civic engagement in Japan, inside or outside these formal organizations. This volume is the first to offer a wide scope of broad variety of forms of civic engagement in contemporary Japan. The volume is quite forceful in counterbalancing oversimplified ideas on an “ideal” civil society in which state, market, and civil society organizations are in- pendent and at best take on oppositional stances.

Author : Henk Vinken
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781441915207
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan written by Henk Vinken and published by . This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : David Chiavacci
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351608134
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Social Movements and Political Activism in Contemporary Japan written by David Chiavacci and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-21 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores social movements and political activism in contemporary Japan, arguing that the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident marks a decisive moment, which has led to an unprecedented resurgence in social and protest movements and inaugurated a new era of civic engagement. Offering fresh perspectives on both older and more current forms of activism in Japan, together with studies of specific movements that developed after Fukushima, this volume tackles questions of emerging and persistent structural challenges that activists face in contemporary Japan. With attention to the question of where the new sense of contention in Japan has emerged from and how the newly developing movements have been shaped by the neo-conservative policies of the Japanese government, the authors ask how the Japanese experience adds to our understanding of how social movements work, and whether it might challenge prevailing theoretical frameworks.

Author : Rieko Kage
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139492160
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan written by Rieko Kage and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite reduced incomes, diminished opportunities for education, and the psychological trauma of defeat, Japan experienced a rapid rise in civic engagement in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Why? Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan answers this question with a new general theory of the growth in civic engagement in postwar democracies. It argues that wartime mobilization unintentionally instills civic skills in the citizenry, thus laying the groundwork for a postwar civic engagement boom. Meanwhile, legacies of prewar associational activities shape the costs of association-building and information-gathering, thus affecting the actual extent of the postwar boom. Combining original data collection, rigorous statistical methods, and in-depth historical case analyses, this book illuminates one of the keys to making postwar democracies work.

Author : Paola Cavaliere
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004285156
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Contemporary Japanese Religious Civil Society written by Paola Cavaliere and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-01-27 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based upon a survey of five faith-based volunteer groups, Promising Practices offers valuable insights and fresh perspectives into the ways women’s participation in religious civic organizations may work as a gateway toward participatory democracy. By approaching women’s faith-based volunteering as a social practice, the book engages with three of the most important dimensions of civil society: gender, religion, and democracy. Cavaliere teases out the complexity of interactions among these three dimensions of civic life through stories of individual women who volunteer for three different religious organizations. The volume examines how faith-based volunteering is experienced by women in contemporary Japan and how it becomes a site of empowering and disempowering practices through which women balance the benefits and the costs of personal shifts, socio-economic changes and democratic transformation.

Author : David H. Slater
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824897714
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan written by David H. Slater and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2024-05-31 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern social movements frequently serve as a space to voice concerns in a supportive and collective context and thus are an important venue for individuals to learn how to speak up for themselves. With the rise of new generations and advancement of technology such as digital networks, contemporary Japanese social movements and activism have transformed significantly in recent years, now with more flexibility and less reliance on ideology and institutional foundations. The new patterns provide individuals different spaces and ways to get involved in “politics,” which have shed the traditional settings and expectations. This transformation carries both advantages and risks. In Alternative Politics twelve original ethnographic studies illustrate how social movements are creating new alternatives for Japan in the current century. The term “alternative” has a double meaning. First, it refers to forms of political engagement that are outside the standard politics of political parties and institutional forums. Second, it engages with contemporary movements seeking an alternative politics that is culturally specific and historically embedded, an alternative to past periods of activism in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s often characterized as tainted, and causing the decline of social movement activity for nearly two decades. The introduction written by Slater and Steinhoff places the volume in historical, social, and methodological context and analyzes the main characteristics of the new social movements. Each chapter provides a rich description of a particular movement active between 1990 and 2020, showing what the participants wanted to achieve, how they tried to distance themselves from earlier movements, and how they used new social media and other innovations to do so. The accounts preserve the immediacy of the period when the fieldwork was conducted, but each end with a postscript bringing the movement up to date. Engagingly written by an international community of Japan specialists committed to doing extended fieldwork with small social movement groups, Alternative Politics will appeal to social scientists interested in activism and Japan specialists in various disciplines, as well as undergraduates in a wide range of courses.

Author : Polina Ivanova
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000911659
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civil Society and International Students in Japan written by Polina Ivanova and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores encounters and interactions between international students and local civil society organizations (CSOs) in Japan. Based on the results of a cross-case analysis, this study reveals the possibilities for international students in Japan of creating social capital in the short term in culturally and socially diverse groups. While a conventional approach sees universities as the main support providers, this research shows the role of local CSOs as alternative actors offering international student support. Unlike the long-standing paradigm viewing Japanese civil society as top-down and closely following the government, this book uncovers many decentralized and bottom-up organizational types. Furthermore, it highlights an active part taken by foreign staff and volunteers in Japanese CSOs, which challenges the guest–host dichotomy of the previous literature. Presenting a reconsidered insight into the role of international students and their interaction with CSOs in community building, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Asian studies and migration studies as well as organizers of CSOs and faculty of international higher education institutions.

Author : Amrita Daniere
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136456554
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Dynamics of Social Capital and Civic Engagement in Asia written by Amrita Daniere and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this volume is to highlight the impacts on civic engagement of social capital, and its various component parts (trust, norms, networks and associations), in diverse parts of Asia. Addressing the pressing need for improved governance within the spatial, political and cultural realities in the rapidly transforming landscapes of Asia, the contributors to the book bring together interdisciplinary work that focuses on the ways in which civic engagement can link with social capital building. The goal of this volume is to inspire policy that recognizes that a vibrant society with access to rich stores of positive social capital requires civil society, alternate civilities and the state. The result is a dialogue on the interplay of social capital and civic engagement in socio-political contexts quite different from those found in the West. This book contributes to current discussions about the nature of social relations and their connection to politics and change and offers a unique lens into the validity of these important concepts in contemporary research across a variety of Asian settings. It will be of interest to social scientists across the board, especially those with an interest in Asia and Asian development.

Author : Gill Steel
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137591935
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Power in Contemporary Japan written by Gill Steel and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-06-27 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses Japanese conceptions of power and presents a complex, nuanced look at how power operates in society and in politics. It rejects stereotypes that describe Japanese citizens as passive and apolitical, cemented into a vertically structured, group-oriented society and shows how citizens learn about power in the contexts of the family, the workplace, and politics. As Japan grapples with the consequences of having one of the oldest and most rapidly ageing populations in the world, it is important for social scientists and policy makers worldwide to understand the choices it makes. Particularly as policy-makers have once again turned their attention to workers, the roles of women, families, and to immigrants as potential ‘solutions’ to the perceived problem of maintaining or increasing the working population. These studies show the ebb and flow of power over time and also note that power is context-dependent — actors can have power in one context, but not another.

Author : Jurian Edelenbos
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000334651
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civic Engagement, Community-Based Initiatives and Governance Capacity written by Jurian Edelenbos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-29 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book intends to theoretically conceptualize and empirically investigate upcoming and established practices of community-based initiatives in various countries in which both citizens and governments join efforts and capacities to solve wicked issues. It aims to include and compare cases from various countries, departing from the notion that community-based initiatives take place in an institutional context of governmental structures, rules, procedures, regulations, and routines. This leads to government involvement in these initiatives and sharing the public space. Furthermore, the editors take into account what kind of leadership roles, knowledge, and resources are present and how they evolve in this collaborative or coordinative effort, which in turn can enhance the capacities of community-based initiatives. This book joins excellent researchers from renowned universities all over the world, aiming for a balance between upcoming scholars and renowned scholars in the field of community-based initiatives and governance capacity. Contributors were carefully selected on the basis of their experience in the field of community-based initiatives, citizens’ engagement and governance capacity approaches. Aimed at researchers and academics, this volume will be of interest to those in the fields of business, economics, public administration, political science, social enterprise, sociology and third sector studies.