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This is a systematic study of the sociological debate on postmodernity in the Japanese context. The volume consists of a collection of 12 papers that explore the idea of postmodernity primarily from sociological perspectives, covering a wide range of domains including work, feminism, communication, science and technology, social stratification, fine arts and literature. The contributors come from diverse disciplines ranging from sociology and history to political science and linguistics. They include advocates of postmodern theories and postmodernist analyses of Japanese society, as well as critics who argue that a suitable revised theory of modernity is still an adequate framework for comparing Japan and the West. Others take the view that an intermediate position might be more productive; that a qualified or provisional version of postmodern can throw new light on issues traditionally neglected by social theory. While the postmodernity debate has been carried out chiefly in the context of European and American experiences, this book aims to pave the way for the postmodernity question to be explored in the non-western but highly industrialized setting of Japan, and brings forward a series of open-ended questions about the bias in the debate. Written by academics based in universities in Japan and Australia, the volume itself is postmodern in its internal diversity and multi-cultural orientation.
List of contents
1 INTRODUCTION 2 THEORY Modernity, Postmodernity and the Japanese Experience 3 WORK Postmodernism or Ultra-modernism: The Japanese Dilemma at Work 4 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Is Japanese Capitalism Post-Fordist? 5 GENDER Equal Opportunity and Gender Identity: Feminist Encounters with Modernity and Postmodernity in Japan 6 SCIENCE Fuzzy Logic: Science, Technology and Postmodernity in Japan 7 LITERATURE Questioning Modernism and Postmodernism in Japanese Literature 8 FINE ARTS The Conditions for Postmodernity in Japanese Art of the 1980s 9 COMMUNICATION Modernisation and Post-modernisation of the Japanese System of Communication Changing Status Perceptions in Contemporary Japan: A Debate on Modernity and Postmodernity 11 POLITICS The Japanese Postmodern Political Condition 12 JAPANESE STUDIES Nihonjinron at the End of the Twentieth Century: A Multicultural Perspective
About the author
Johann Arnason and Yoshio Sugimoto, Professors of Sociology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Summary
A systematic study of the sociological debate on postmodernity in the Japanese context. The volume consists of a collection of 12 papers that explore the idea of postmodernity primarily from sociological perspectives, covering a wide range of domains including work, feminism and communication.
