Human Studies for a Japanese Sociologist: A Personal Memory
Human Studies for a Japanese Sociologist: A Personal Memory
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日本社会学家的人类研究:个人记忆
DOI:
10.1023/a:1021234729554
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发表时间:
2002
期刊:
影响因子:
1
通讯作者:
Hisashi Nasu
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Hisashi Nasu
Let me begin by talking about the starting point of my personal academic career. During my graduate student days from 1974 to 1979, 1 devoted my? self to the study of the works of Max Weber and Alfred Schutz. My first aca? demic published paper was about the program of Max Weber's verstehende Soziologie in 1977, the second on Alfred Schutz's conception of Fremdverstehen in 1978. My first presentation at the annual meeting of the Japan Sociologi? cal Society (in 1978) was about Schutz's conception of the" structuration" of the social world. And the first work which I was asked by a publisher to trans? late into Japanese was Alfred Schutz's Collected Papers, the first Japanese edition of which appeared in 1983.Such a starting point of my academic career was determined not only by my personal conditions but also by the academic circumstances those days in Japan, and the latter in turn arose from the circumstances of sociology in the world. As for sociology in Japan in the mid-1970s, I had better borrow pas? sages from a paper written in 1975. It was one of the papers constituting the special issue" Tasks facing sociology in Japan" celebrating Number 100 of the Japanese Sociological Review, the official journal of the Japan Sociological Society. The author, one of the most eminent and leading Japanese sociolo? gists, said," Generally speaking, it might be most appropriate to characterize the functionalist paradigm prevailing in Japan as normal science. I imply also in such a characterization that even sociologists uncommitted to functional ism provide their explanation frequently in terms of the functionalist paradigm"(Shiobara, 1975, p. 18). Professor Shiobara's diagnosis of theoretical sociol? ogy in Japan in the mid-1970s carried two implications. One was his char? acterization of mainstream sociology in those days, and the other was his recognition of coming new waves deriving from" criticism and reflection upon the domain assumption of functionalism." According to my remembrance of those days, his diagnosis can be accepted. From the point of view of a Japanese graduate student of sociology in those times, the functionalist paradigm actually looked like the paradigm of sociol? ogy. We had to learn and understand the concept of" pattern variables" and the" AGIL scheme" in order to understand sociology. As a matter of fact, the Japanese students of sociology in those days were frequently required to read through the academic journals published in the USA, and, as a national sur