Book Review - John Clammer (1997) Contemporary Urban Japan: A sociology of consumption
Book Review - John Clammer (1997) Contemporary Urban Japan: A sociology of consumption
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书评 - John Clammer (1997) 当代都市日本：消费社会学
DOI：
10.1080/14036099950150008
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发表时间：
1999
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Annamari Konttinen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Annamari Konttinen
（作者在调查，但最近受到质疑）。收入/消费模式是统计平均数还是代表性例子？如果是一个例子，那是谁的例子？男人还是女人？Asarariiman（领薪水的白色白领工人）还是企业家？作者倾向于提出相当大胆的概括（关于日本基督徒在搬到另一个地方时停止参加服务，或者关于日本人对“群体主义”的默许，这本身就是一个有问题的术语，或者关于日本人通过消费机会“建立自我”的工作，仅举几个例子）不必要地造成了这样的印象，即轶事证据是Clammer论点的基石。这种印象至少可以通过稍微更系统的介绍方式来部分避免。现在，文本在主题公园、送礼文化、日本市场的封闭性和所谓的日本后现代性等各种主题中进进出出，这也使得章节相当重复。更广泛地使用符号和比较/纵向数据将使许多章节更容易理解，特别是当论点涉及事物的“日本性”（与“西方”或“外国”形成对比）或消费模式等复杂变化过程时。Clammer提出了一个有趣的替代观点，即休闲作为构建人们生活的核心社会力量的重要性日益增加，而工作的重要性正在下降。他声称，至少在日本的情况下，消费已经取代了工作在一个看似无阶级的社会中定义社会阶层（所谓的消费阶级）的结构作用，以及休闲的自我构建作用。对日本人来说，消费是对事物的欲望和意义的游戏。在一个竞争激烈、墨守成规的社会里，消费也是平静和快乐的避风港，在这里，个人可以尝试身份，承担新的角色，对抗失范（!）重新定义一个人与他人的关系消费，作为一个个性和社会关系的领域，因此被呈现为一种解放而不是操纵的力量，这一立场与该领域中占主导地位的批判和过于严肃的基调截然不同。不过，在未来的研究中，可能会有更多的注意力集中在那些即使在富裕的日本，也无法参与游戏，但仍以更阴暗的方式消费的人身上--主要是以有限的手段满足需求。当然，这些观点是互补的，而不是对立的：在消费阶级中，也不是每个人都能成为上层（中层）阶级。对日本消费主义中欲望语境的探讨是本书的亮点之一。对当代日本的悲观分析是"对金钱政治的犬儒主义，一种日益增长但无法表达的危机感，在一个复杂的世界中生存的不确定性不断增加，以及相应的自我形象不明确"，这与对消费本质的非常有趣的开放相平衡，消费是一种活跃在社会力量领域的政治力量，在很大程度上忽视了僵化的政治权力结构。正如马费索利所指出的那样，大众社会的碎片化至少可以削弱主导机构的权力。这形成了一个有趣的连续性，即在日本的公民运动中，消费者运动与合作型替代项目一起，几十年来一直是真实的少数几个渠道之一，如果仍然相对薄弱，非意识形态的政治抗议。这本书被印刷错误所困扰，特别是在日本罗马化的术语中，这...
probing by the author, but recently challenged)? Is the income/consumption pattern presented a statistical mean or a representative example? If an example, an example of whom? A man or a woman? Asarariiman (salaried white collar worker) or an entrepreneur? The tendency of the author to present rather daring generalizations (about Japanese Christians ceasing to attend services when moving to another location or about the Japanese acquiescence to ‘groupism’, itself a problematic term, or about work being for the Japanese ‘for building the self’via consumption opportunities, to name but a few examples) unnecessarily creates the impression that anecdotal evidence is the cornerstone of Clammer’s arguments. This impression might at least partly be avoided with a slightly more systematic style of presentation. Now the text pops in and out of subjects as diverse as theme parks, gift-giving culture, the closedness of Japanese marketplace and the alleged Japanese postmodernity, which also makes the chapters rather repetitious. More generous use of notation and comparative/longitudinal data would make many chapters easier to digest, especially when the argument deals with the ‘Japaneseness’ of things (in contrast to ‘Western’or ‘foreign’) or with complex processes of change in, for instance, consumption patterns. Clammer presents an interesting alternative to visions of the growing importance of leisure as the central social force structuring people’s lives and the declining importance of work. He claims that at least in the Japanese case, consumption has taken over both the structuring role of work in defining social strata in a seemingly classless society (the so-called consumption classes) as well as the self-constructing role of leisure. Consumption for the Japanese is play with desire and meanings attached to things. Consumption is also the haven of calm and joy in a competitive and conformist society, a place where the individual can experiment with identities, assume new roles, fight anomie (!) and redefine one’s relationship with others. Consumption, as a field of both individuality and social relationships, is thus presented as a liberating rather than a manipulative force, a position refreshingly different from the dominant critical and overly serious tone in the field. Maybe in the forthcoming studies, though, more attention will be directed at those who, even in affluent Japan, can not participate in the play but still consume in the more sombre way–mainly to fulfil needs with limited means. These views, of course, are complementary, not opposing: in consuming classes, too, not everybody can be upper (middle) class. The discussion on the context of desire in Japanese consumerism is one of the highlights of the book. The rather gloomy analysis of contemporary Japan as suffering from ‘cynicism over money politics, a growing but unarticulated sense of crisis, rising uncertainty about survival in a complex world and a corresponding unclearness about the image of the self’is balanced by immensely interesting openings into the nature of consumption as a political force active in the field of social forces that largely ignore the rigid political power structures. The fragmentation of mass society, as Maffesoli suggests, makes it possible to at least diminish the power of dominant institutions. This forms an interesting continuum with the fact that of Japanese citizen’s movements, the consumer movements, together with co-operativetype alternative projects, have for decades been among the few channels of real, if still relatively weak, non-ideological political protest. The book is plagued by typographical errors, especially in the Japanese romanicized terms, which …