The Failure of Civil Society?, livre ebook

A look at the voluntary sector in Japan, which has emerged strongly only in recent years.

A look at the voluntary sector in Japan, which has emerged strongly only in recent years.

Winner of the 2010 Japan NPO Research Association Book Award

The global discourse on civil society is both complicated and enriched in this participant study of Japan's volunteers, known as the third sector. In the wake of the Japanese government's failed response to the 1995 earthquake, volunteers took the lead in providing aid to victims. This recent sea change in Japanese society was quickly followed by the 1998 NPO Law (nonprofit organization law) that encourages third sector activities. Drawing on his fieldwork at one of the new NPOs, Akihiro Ogawa explores in detail the social and historical particularities of Japanese "civil society" or shimin shakai, revisiting how the concept is interpreted and practiced by the volunteers themselves. Civil society, Ogawa argues, can best be understood as an active, dynamic process rather than as a static, abstract model.

Illustrations
Table
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

Key Questions
Anthropology of Civil Society
Fieldwork
Action Research
Overview of Chapters

2. Kawazoe

Landscape
Associational Life in Kawazoe
SLG’s Entry into the Associational Landscape
Social Capital Argument

3. NPO: A New Third Sector

SLG: An NPO Promoting Lifelong Learning
Activities Organized by Volunteers
Historical Background
"NPO-ization" Led by the Government
Response to the Government Proposal
On the Transition
Proper NPOs?

4. Invited by the State

You Can Volunteer with a Single Finger!
Discourses of "Borantia"
Volunteers Invited by the State
Volunteering as Potential for Individualization?
Reproduction of Volunteer Subjectivity through Education
The Colonization of the Volunteering World

5. Power and Contested Rationalities

Kyōdō: Policy Collaboration
A New Political Technique
Talks toward Kyōdō: A Japanese Case
Inside Discussion: Challenging the Defined Benefits
Distrust Accelerating between the Sides
Pushing Cost-Cutting Policy
Contested Rationalities: A Reality
Kyōdō: A Failed Attempt

6. Shimin in Japanese Society

Shimin—A Genealogy an class
Shimin in the Early Postwar Era
Shimin under the NPO
Volunteer Subjectivity Revisited
NPO as an Agency in Neoliberalism
Shimin as Cultural Product in Neoliberalism

7. Epilogue: Initiating Change

Research for Social Change
Establishing the Field Site
Knowing My Field Sites
Initiating Collaborative Inquiry
Taking Action
My Positionality

Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3

Notes
Bibliography
Japanese Glossary
Index