Download or read book Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan written by Robert J. Pekkanen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although local neighborhood associations are found in many countries, Japan’s are distinguished by their ubiquity, scope of activities, and very high participation rates, making them important for the study of society and politics. Most Japanese belong to one local neighborhood association or another, making them Japan’s most numerous civil society organization, and one that powerfully shapes governance outcomes in the country. And, they also often blur the state-society boundary, making them theoretically intriguing. Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan draws on a unique and novel body of empirical data derived from the first national survey of neighborhood associations carried out in 2007 and provides a multifaceted empirical portrait of Japan’s neighborhood associations. It examines how local associational structures affect the quality of local governance, and thus the quality of life for Japan’s citizens and residents, and illuminates the way in which these ambiguous associations can help us refine civil society theory and show how they contribute to governance. As well as outlining the key features of neighbourhood associations, the book goes on to examine in detail the way in which neighbourhood associations contribute to governance, in terms of social capital, networks with other community organizations, social service provision, cooperation with local governments and political participation. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japanese politics, Japanese society, anthropology, urban studies as well as those interested in social capital and civil society.

Download or read book Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan written by Robert J. Pekkanen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although local neighborhood associations are found in many countries, Japan’s are distinguished by their ubiquity, scope of activities, and very high participation rates, making them important for the study of society and politics. Most Japanese belong to one local neighborhood association or another, making them Japan’s most numerous civil society organization, and one that powerfully shapes governance outcomes in the country. And, they also often blur the state-society boundary, making them theoretically intriguing. Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan draws on a unique and novel body of empirical data derived from the first national survey of neighborhood associations carried out in 2007 and provides a multifaceted empirical portrait of Japan’s neighborhood associations. It examines how local associational structures affect the quality of local governance, and thus the quality of life for Japan’s citizens and residents, and illuminates the way in which these ambiguous associations can help us refine civil society theory and show how they contribute to governance. As well as outlining the key features of neighbourhood associations, the book goes on to examine in detail the way in which neighbourhood associations contribute to governance, in terms of social capital, networks with other community organizations, social service provision, cooperation with local governments and political participation. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japanese politics, Japanese society, anthropology, urban studies as well as those interested in social capital and civil society.

Download or read book Local Organizations and Urban Governance in East and Southeast Asia written by Benjamin L. Read and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection brings together enterprising pieces of new research on the many forms of organization in East and Southeast Asia that are sponsored or mandated by government, but engage widespread participation at the grassroots level. Straddling the state-society divide, these organizations play important roles in society and politics, yet remain only dimly understood. This book shines a spotlight on this phenomenon, which speaks to fundamental questions about how such societies choose to organize themselves, how institutions of local governance change over time, and how individuals respond to and make use of the power of the state. The contributors investigate organizations ranging from volunteer-based organizations that partner with government in providing services for homeless children, to state-managed networks of neighborhood- or village-level associations that perform representative as well as administrative functions and seeks to answer a number of questions: When do the "vertical," top-down imperatives of the state stifle "horizontal" solidarities, and when might the two work in harmony? Are useful social and administrative purposes served by this type of fusion? Does it amplify or merely muffle citizens’ voices? What does it tell us about existing accounts of community, social capital, "synergy," "complementarity," "subsidiarity," and related concepts? Representing seven countries: China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore this volume will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in Asian studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, development, history, nonprofit studies.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan written by Hiroko Takeda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 677 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan presents a synthesized, interdisciplinary study of contemporary Japan based on up-to-date theoretical models designed to provide readers with a comprehensive and full understanding of the dynamics of contemporary Japan. In order to achieve this, the Handbook is organized into two parts. Part I, ‘Foundations’, clarifies the state of contemporary Japan topic by topic by referring to the latest theoretical developments in the relevant disciplinary fields of politics, international relations, economy, society, culture and the personal. Part II, ‘Issues’, then offers a series of concrete analyses building upon the theoretical discussions introduced in Part I to help undergraduate and postgraduate students learn how to conduct independent analysis. Locating Japan in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this Handbook is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Asian studies and global studies.

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.

Download or read book Adaptive Fisheries Governance in Changing Coastal Regions in Japan written by Akiko Ikeguchi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s fisheries sector is undergoing a major restructuring. The coastal ecological change and natural disasters such as tsunami demand that communities transform or organize resource governance anew. Under the national policy of decentralization to cope with the aging and declining population, the availability of local infrastructure, both physical and social, plays a significant role in the adaptive capacity of the community. This book presents the historical and spatial dynamics of coastal fisheries resource governance in response to different environmental changes, its socio-political context, and challenges raised by academicians. The reader will find the national trends and geographical patterns of the administrative restructuring in the communities and fisheries cooperatives from abundant maps and figures, as well as a rich description of adaptive governance in the scale of region and community by ecological-historical approaches. Comparative analysis of the communities provides a practical framework to understand a variety of local resources in Japan’s coastal regions, which will serve as a guide to the development of alternative adaptive governance in community-based small-scale fisheries in the world.

Download or read book Rising East Asia written by Chien-pin Li and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2020-01-22 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising East Asia by Chien-pin Li helps readers understand the dynamic changes to China, Japan, and Korea since the end of World War II. Although the three countries have experienced stellar economic growth, there have also been shifts in political dynamics, social order, and security landscapes. To help people understand the past and present of the region, and develop well-informed opinions about its future, Li offers a book for East Asian Politics courses that reflects interdisciplinary collaboration—one that brings the scholarly debate in comparative politics and international relations to bear on the rich information and knowledge accumulated from East Asian studies. Each section is organized around the pursuit of three policy goals: economic prosperity, political governance, and national security. Whatever their position may be, the future of the region is likely to have major impacts on the rest of the world.

Download or read book Social Ontology Sociocultures and Inequality in the Global South written by Benjamin Baumann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the assumption that the capitalist transformation includes a radical break with the past, this edited volume traces how historically older forms of social inequality are transformed but persist in the present to shape the social structure of contemporary societies in the global South. Each social collective comprises an interpretation of itself – including the meaning of life, the concept of a human person, and the notion of a collective. This volume studies the interpretation that various social collectives have of themselves. This interpretation is referred to as social ontology. All chapters of the edited volume focus on the relation between social ontology and structures of inequality. They argue that each society comprises several historical layers of social ontology that correspond to layers of inequality, which are referred to as sociocultures. Thereby, the volume explains why and how structures of inequality differ between contemporary collectives in the global South, even though all of them seem to have similar structures, institutions, and economies. The volume is aimed at academics, students and the interested public looking for a novel theorization of social inequality pertaining to social collectives in the global South.

Download or read book Handbook of Post Western Sociology From East Asia to Europe written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-04-03 with total page 1056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond hegemonic thoughts, the Post-Western sociology enables a new dialogue between East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) and Europe on common and local knowledge to consider theoretical continuities and discontinuities, to develop transnational methodological spaces, and co-produce creolized concepts. With this new paradigm in social sciences we introduce the multiplication of epistemic autonomies vis-à-vis Western hegemony and new theoretical assemblages between East-Asia and European sociologies. From this ecology of knowledge this groundbreaking contribution is to coproduce a post-Western space in a cross-pollination process where “Western” and “non-Western” knowledge do interact, articulated through cosmovisions, as well as to coproduce transnational fieldwork practices.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics written by Alisa Gaunder and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-02-25 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics is an advanced level reference guide which surveys the current state of Japanese politics, featuring both traditional topics and cutting edge research. The volume is divided into five sections covering: domestic politics civil society social policy political economy and international relations/security The first four sections begin with an overview chapter that provides historical background information on the section’s overarching topic. The chapters that follow explore more specific topics in the sub-area. In the final section, historical background information is contained in the individual chapters which cover the diverse areas of international political economy, security and foreign policy. Offering a complete overview of the full spectrum of Japanese politics, the Handbook is an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, policy analysts, graduate and undergraduate students studying this ever-evolving field.

Download or read book The State of Civil Society in Japan written by Frank J. Schwartz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-20 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents

Download or read book Cities Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan written by Carola Hein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a cogent collection of case studies focusing on the history, present and future of decentralization in Japan.

Download or read book Living Cities in Japan written by André Sorensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan. This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, raising important questions about the changing roles of and relations between central and local government, and between citizens and the state, in managing shared spaces. The machizukuri processes studied here can be seen as the focus of an important emerging trend toward increased civic participation in managing processes of urban change in Japan. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the machizukuri phenomenon through examination not only of theory and history, but also of case studies illustrating real changes in the institutions of place making and neighbourhood governance. Living Cities in Japan will be of particular value to readers interested in social, urban, geographical and environmental studies.

Download or read book Japanese Contemporary Politics written by Akio Igarashi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the postwar period, Japanese politics has evolved considerably, with issues of gender, representation, and household economics becoming increasingly salient. Meanwhile, since the end of the Cold War, Japan has joined other developed states in the process of decentralization and deindustrialization. Yet, its restructuring has come at a slower pace, as the Japanese bureaucracy attempts to retain a more traditional approach. This book, a translated and updated version of the author's 2010 monograph Nihon seijiron, traces these developments in Japanese politics from the end of the Asia Pacific wars to the present day. Examining each of the key stages of transition, it looks at four aspects of Japanese politics: high politics, interest-centered politics, life-centered politics, and globalization. It also provides up-to-date analysis of contemporary themes, including the Abe administration’s challenge to international politics and coverage of nuclear issues. Written by an experienced Japanese scholar, this book ultimately demonstrates how globalization has transformed the nature of local politics, as well as national security. However, as seen in the recent triple disaster of 2011 (a chapter on which has been added), Japanese politics retains traditional practices that have led to corruption, scandal, and political mistrust among the electorate. Offering a comprehensive introduction to Japanese politics, this book will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of Japanese politics and comparative and Asia politics in general.

Download or read book The 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Reconstruction and Restoration written by Vicente Santiago-Fandiño and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers the restoration and reconstruction process and activities undertaken in Japan in the first five years since the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami – a period widely considered to be the most intensive reconstruction phase within the 10-year restoration plan drawn up by the Japanese Government. The respective chapters explore technical, scientific, social and non-scientific (policy-related) aspects, including: reconstruction and restoration policies, infrastructure and designs for tsunami coastal defence, resilient urban areas and affected communities, housing and relocation schemes, disaster mitigation and evacuation measures, reactivation of the economy, revitalization of fisheries and coastal agriculture, and industry and tourism. The book also illustrates some of the achievements and failures in a broad range of projects and initiatives intended to address the above-mentioned issues, making it particularly relevant for experts, decision makers, students and other interested scholars.

Download or read book Rethinking Locality in Japan written by Sonja Ganseforth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book inquires what is meant when we say "local" and what "local" means in the Japanese context. Through the window of locality, it enhances an understanding of broader political and socio-economic shifts in Japan. This includes demographic change, electoral and administrative reform, rural decline and revitalization, welfare reform, as well as the growing metabolic rift in energy and food production. Chapters throughout this edited volume discuss the different and often contested ways in which locality in Japan has been reconstituted, from historical and contemporary instances of administrative restructuring, to more subtle social processes of making – and unmaking – local places. Contributions from multiple disciplinary perspectives are included to investigate the tensions between overlapping and often incongruent dimensions of locality. Framed by a theoretical discussion of socio-spatial thinking, such issues surrounding the construction and renegotiation of local places are not only relevant for Japan specialists, but also connected with topical scholarly debates further afield. Accordingly, Rethinking Locality in Japan will appeal to students and scholars from Japanese studies and human geography to anthropology, history, sociology and political science.

Download or read book Local Government Development in Post war Japan written by Michio Muramatsu and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the evolution of intergovernmental relations in postwar Japan. These relations are shown to be both complex and dynamic, and the Japanese model is revealed as one in which aspects of both central control and local autonomy have co-existed with the balance shifting gradually over time towards the latter. The Japanese system has helped to maintain broad-based economic growth since it has at its core a strongly egalitarian fiscal transfer mechanism. At the same time, it has proved to be consistent, to a much greater extent than previously recognized, with political development, or progress in the attainment of such political values as liberty (personal rights) and equality (broad participation in public affairs) for individuals and communities. This is because the national government has proved flexible enough to accommodate, although not always with grace or alacrity, citizen concerns about the quality of life. The Japanese approach to intergovernmental relationships has also been successful in solving coordination problems which often arise between local and central government units and in building capacity to support greater and effective decentralization. Coordination problems have been handled through a variety of mechanisms including the practice of agency delegated functions, while local capacity issues have been addressed through such practices as the exchange of personnel across different levels of government and the use of attractive compensation and training packages to recruit and retain local staff. The Japanese experience thus provides an example of gradual and guided decentralization based on shared responsibilities between local and central governments for mobilizing, managing, and spending public resources in the pursuit of sustainable development.