From the reproduction of social class to the production of locality: Focusing on the narratives of young working class men in rural Japan

Abstract

This paper reveals how young working-class men in Japan choose to work after high school instead of going to university. Through fieldwork and retrospective interviews, we interpreted young men's school experiences and career choices. We found that they did not conform to school norms but based their prospects on informal relationships outside school and the information available. This reality was lived and talked about as a process of acquiring the senses and social techniques necessary to live locally. These young peoples’ experiences and choices have traditionally been understood as a reproduction of social classes. In the context of their narratives, however, it is a process of becoming familiar with local sensibilities and social techniques, in other words, a process of producing locality. This raises new debates on class reproduction.