Deliberative Council Research Articles

Working Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan by Joseph D. Hankins (review)

Reviewed by: Working Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan by Joseph D. Hankins Ian Neary (bio) Working Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan. By Joseph D. Hankins. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2014. xxii, 277 pages. $65.00, cloth; $29.95, paper; $29.95, E-book. It is no longer the case that most buraku communities have a connection with either the leather industry or meat production, and some historians argue that it never was, but nevertheless many Japanese and those non-Japanese who know something about buraku mondai assume there was and still is a close connection. While there has been more work published by a wide range of social scientists and historians on issues of status discrimination in Japan over the last five years, none of it has turned its attention to the leather industry. This book goes some way to filing that gap and uses a discussion of that industry as a starting point for an examination of a wide range of issues facing burakumin and policymaking in Japan in the twenty-first century, many of them previously undiscussed in the English-language material on the topic. Joseph Hankins is a trained anthropologist who clearly originally intended to focus on language use, gender, and sexuality in Japan but ended up researching buraku mondai. Nevertheless, he makes good use of his sensitivity to language use as one of the tools for his research. He explains the intellectual background to his research project, also taking us through the times and places of his fieldwork. He spent a year and a half, 2005–7, in Tokyo as an intern with the International Movement Against Discrimination and Racism (IMADR, a UN-recognized organization that is the international face of the Buraku Liberation League [BLL]). Later he worked as an apprentice in a tanning factory in north Tokyo. He also participated in events sponsored by both the BLL and IMADR and took part in trips from Japan to India by burakumin visiting Dalits. All of this activity he describes economically, effectively, and reflexively. What is particular to his account is the way he interrogates and explicates each situation, the circumstances, and the participants he is describing within “two transitional conditions of political argument and economic practice” and within the particular context of Japan in the early twenty-first century beginning to think of itself as a “multicultural nation-state in spite of itself” (p. 240). [End Page 178] In all of this, he is strong on description and his reflexive anthropological analysis seems to this nonanthropologist both exemplary and thought provoking. He is rather less reliable or informative, however, on some aspects of what he is describing. So, for example, although he provides a very rich description of everyday life in the Tokyo tannery where he spent six months, we do not find out very much about the state of the Japanese leather industry today or how it has fared since (say) 1945. Or perhaps what little he does give us left this reader wanting to learn more. No doubt he would respond that that is not the book he set out to write and that such questions reflect my interests, not his. Still, as the title seems to suggest that it will tell us something about leather making in Japan, it would seem not unreasonable at least to alert readers early on about what his book will not do. In a similar vein, we can only find a very brief description of the formation and evolution of Japan’s policies toward multiculturalism. Provocatively Hankins defines what he considers multiculturalism as a “form of governance,” although I was not always clear exactly what he meant by that. Again, given that it is a key word in the title of his book, we are perhaps entitled to expect a little more about the content and timing of the relevant policies. I was also concerned by some of the errors that crept into his description of dōwa policy. On page 112 we are told that a 1965 report produced by “a BLL deliberative council” repudiated “a racial understanding of its situation.” A little later that, “The Dōwakai was tasked with...

Reflexões sobre o processo de elaboração da Política de Preservação e Gestão de Acervos Culturais das Ciências e da Saúde da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz – Fiocruz

The Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC) is responsible for the preservation and valorization of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) institutional memory. Its professional team preserves historical buildings, urban sites, archival, library and museum collections which represent an important source of knowledge in the area of sciences and health in Brazil. The pertinence of a Preservation and Management Policy for Cultural Collections under the responsibility of COC is a result of the accumulated experience and matured understanding of the organization work processes and its management and planning tools. A working group, which drew representatives from the areas responsible for the preservation of cultural collections, initiated the drafting of the policy in the beginning of 2012 under the coordination of the Vice-Directorship for Information and Cultural Heritage. The first draft of the document establishes principles, guidelines orientations that govern management and preservation actions applicable to the cultural collections in science and health under the custodianship of COC. Its design was a collective effort that enjoyed the collaboration of ad hoc external consultants who evaluated the policy, as well as a period of internal hearing, and the submission to the COC’s Deliberative Council for approval. This process has contributed for a larger collaboration between the different organizational structures responsible for the preservation of the cultural collections. This paper attempts to consider the still on working drafting process of the Preservation and Management Policy for Cultural Collections in Science and Health and its outcomes.

Discussões do Conselho Deliberativo da Reserva Extrativista de Canavieiras, Bahia, Brasil: da gestão pesqueira à ambiental

This study had as its objective to identify and analyze the discussions that occurred under the deliberative council of Extractive reserve of Canavieiras whi...

Making Japanese Citizens: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan (review)

Reviewed by: Making Japanese Citizens: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan Gabriele Vogt Making Japanese Citizens: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan . By Simon Andrew Avenell . University of California Press, 2010. 376 pages. Hardcover $60.00/£41.95; softcover $24.95/£16.95. Chapter 5 of Making Japanese Citizensstarts with this quote taken from a 2006 statement by the Deliberative Council on National Lifestyle: "Compared with back then (ten years ago) the meaning of the term shiminhas changed. There is no need to get caught up in past complications" (p. 195). Avenell obviously thinks differently about this matter—and his book proves him right. If you seek to understand the foundations of the "state-society dynamic" in Japan (p. 224), there is indeed a need to get caught up in the story of the several shifts in meaning of the term shimin (citizen). Avenell takes his readers back not only ten years, but a full sixty years on his journey of discovering the different notions of shimin, that is, ideas of how citizens can—and probably should—participate in public life. The book's five main chapters introduce the evolution of Japan's citizen-state relations. Working in chronological order, Avenell starts with the immediate postwar years in chapter 1 before devoting a chapter each to two decisive phases of citizen action in Japan: the Anpo struggle, when citizens took to the streets in protest against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, and protests against the Vietnam war carried out by the activist group Beheiren (Betonamu Ni Heiwa O! Shimin Rengo). In chapter 4, the focus turns to local activism in the mid-1970s, which was mainly centered on environmental issues. Finally, chapter 5 acquaints us with the more recent developments of citizen action in the 1980s and 1990s. Given this structure, readers with a background in social movement research may expect Avenell to present a study along the lines of seemingly endless repetitions of the mobilization and demobilization phases of social movement activism. Most prominently, Sidney Tarrow's concept of cycles of contention comes to mind. 1 Avenell, however, moves beyond this cyclical approach. He does so very skillfully, by repeatedly drawing our attention to the book's core theme—the changing notion of citizenship. Avenell aims to explore "how the shiminidea and civic activism evolved from a stance of resolute antiestablishmentism in the late 1950s to symbols for self-responsible, noncontentious, participatory citizenship in the Japanese nation by the 1990s" (p. 6). This, indeed, is a historical puzzle that has not yet been tackled directly in social science research on Japan. While Avenell claims that his study is based on three concepts of social movement theory, namely, "the theory of ideational framing processes, the related concept of collective action frames, and the notions of movement intellectuals" (p. 6; italics Avenell's), for large parts of the analytical chapters he focuses solely on the role of public figures he describes as "movement intellectuals." Using an impressive quantity of historic sources and recent academic studies—the overwhelming majority of which this book makes accessible in English for the first time—Avenell meticulously tracks down evidence for when and how particular intellectuals became key figures of shimin activism in Japan. While he is thorough in showing [End Page 198] how these movement intellectuals framed certain core issues central to the groups they attempted to lead, he does not explain in equal depth how these core issues spread among the group members and how so-called collective action frames worked in practice to help some of these movements succeed in their goals. I have one more point of critique before returning to my praises of the book. While Avenell's sharp focus on the shimin groups themselves surely allows for the most valuable insights into the various movements, it also adds some vulnerability to the study. On numerous occasions, the author acknowledges the importance of what social movement researchers call "political opportunity structure," yet at no point does he clarify the basic structures of Japan's political system. Nor does he provide information on modern Japanese history that would...

Democratização das Políticas Públicas pelos Conselhos e Tutela dos Interesses Fundamentais

Com a pesquisa foi possível identificar a diversidade de conceitos existentes sobre políticas públicas e conselhos deliberativos de políticas sociais. Restaram levantados alguns problemas existentes na execução das atribuições impostas pela lei aos conselhos gestores de políticas públicas.

Beyond keigo: smooth communication and the expression of respect in Japanese as a Foreign Language

For foreign learners of Japanese, keigo (honorific language) is one of the most difficult aspects of the language. However, since the early 1990s, sociolinguistic research placing keigo in a much broader context of politeness and respect has been incorporated in writings on honorific language produced by official bodies such as the National Language Research Institute and the National Language Deliberative Council. The new approach takes a much broader idea of ‘‘expressions of respect’’, and emphasizes the role played by respect in ensuring that ‘‘communication progresses smoothly / harmoniously’’ (komyūnikeeshon ga enkatsu ni susumu), while deemphasizing hierarchy, relative status and power as determining factors in keigo usage. Recent research in this area has also investigated changes in honorific language usage linked to social changes. JFL teaching needs to take account of these shifts. This paper examines the treatment of honorific language in some English-language JFL textbooks against this background, and makes some suggestions for dealing with politeness and respect in JFL teaching.

Bringing religious traditions into educational theory: Making an example of Joseph Smith, jr.

Educational theorists should engage more deeply with normative religious traditions because people often consult their traditions for guidance about education. Projects that work within such traditions, however, often seem irrelevant or irrational to those on the outside. In contrast, I argue that there are at least three intellectually respectable approaches to religious engagement in mainstream educational theory. I focus on what I call the “educational religious criticism” approach, and, as an example, I offer an analysis of Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormon prophet. I discuss the controversial question of whether Joseph Smith brings forward any resources for living in a pluralistic society. I draw a parallel between Mormonism and American pragmatism and show (1) that Joseph's thought is, in many ways, radically pluralistic, (2) that he attempts to find unity in this plurality in mediating “deliberative councils,” and (3) that education should be aimed at developing the ethos of council. After developing this example, I offer some reflections on the function of “religious criticism” in educational theory.

Civil Society Representation in the Participatory Budget and Deliberative Councils of São Paulo, Brazil

We examine the differential capacity of civil society organisations to represent the poor in institutional spaces for citizen participation in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The data was produced by a unique survey of civil society actors who work for, or with, sectors of the lower-middle class, the working class, and the urban poor. Contrary to the focus on autonomy in much of the work on civil society, we find support for the claim that collective actors with relations to institutional actors, and the Workers' Party and State actors in particular, have the highest propensity to participate. We also find support for the idea that the institutional design of participatory policy-making spaces has a significant impact on who participates, and that this impact varies by type of civil society actor. We therefore suggest a polity perspective on civil society organisations that, unlike the more common civil society perspective, is sensitive to the differential capacity for action and to institutional effects.

2002년 사료작물 수입적응성 인증품종의 생육기성 및 수동성 1. 조숙 양질 다수성 사료작물 옥수수 교잡종 “DK 537”

“DK 537”has been selected by forage crop breeding team at the National Livestock Research Institute(NLRI), RDA and has been determined by the Deliberative Council of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation(NACF) in 2002, as a new recommended hybrid which is early maturing, good quality and hi호 yield of corn for silage. The characteristics of this hybrid are as follows ; 1. The seed coat is yellow and the mean of tasseling date is 5th of July, included in early maturing hybrid which is one day delayed than check cultivar, DK 501. The culm length is 246cm. It is resistant to lodging because of its low height from surface to ear. 2. DK 537 shows resistance to H. maydis and Maize Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus(MBSDV). It also shows strength to corn borer as much as DK 501 does. 3. Fresh yield. dry matter yield. and TDN per a ha are 50 tons, 16.9 tons, and 11.4 tons respectively. which are almost same yielding level of DK 501. Its percent ear to total dry matter is 50.8% at the same time. Through all these tests, we could make sure at DK 537 hybrid will be recommended as good forage crop.

History and Rhetoric

An inquiry into the rhetorical aspects of history may seem paradoxical, given that historical discourse is not typically included among those types which, since Aristotle, have been understood to be governed by rhetoric; these types being the deliberative council, the tribunal and the commemorative assembly. It was to these specific audiences that the three kinds of discourse—the deliberative, judiciary, and panegyric—were addressed. However, are the boundaries of the historian's audience sufficiently delineated in order to allow us to identify it as a specific addressee? This first objection, which regards the very legitimacy of the subject of these remarks, can be met by noting a common trait that links history to the above-mentioned three types of discourse; that is, competition between opposed discourses requiring a choice. In each case the aim is to structure a debate that calls for a clear-cut decision. Yet a major problem of the discipline of history is that it allows both for widely varying descriptions of the same series of events, and sanctions the use of a variety of equally acceptable rules or preferences for interpreting a given slice of the past.

Trends in diesel exhaust gas control and engineers' expectations from tribology

In December 1989 the target of exhaust gas control for the next 10 years was proposed by The Central Pollution Control Deliberative Council, Japan, and this was made public in March 1991. The main features are (1) introduction of particulate (PM) control, (2) reduction of black smoke and NO x, (3) review of test methods and (4) expression in concentration rate changed to expression in weight. The enforcement period comprised two stages, short and long term, and currently efforts are directed towards a so-called ‘clean diesel engine’. This paper deals with Japan's engineers' expectations from tribology in making ‘cleanliness’ compatible with ‘durability’, centring on the DI diesel engine, which powers mainly heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

A gestão democrática da escola na visão do centro do professorado paulista

This article analyses the material published in Jornal do Professor, the official paper of Teacher Center of Sao Paulo (Centro do Professorado Paulista), between 1982 and 1988, dealing with the democratization of public schools, specially through the Deliberative Council of Schools (Conselho de Escola Deliberativo) using the concept of representation proposed by Lefebvre (1983).

Research funding in Brazil: A case history

The evolution and current structure of research funding in Brazil are analyzed. The main lessons to be drawn are: the crucial role of peer participation in decision making for science policy planning and resource allocation; the importance of strong involvement of the scientific and technological community, as well as an informed public opinion, in the discussion of these problems; and the need for the stabilization of support of high-quality research groups. Strategies to achieve these aims are discussed, in particular, the creation of a Deliberative Council with peer participation within the Brazilian National Research Council, and a proposed Associated Laboratories Program.

The Reform of the Man of Science

The Reform of the Man of Science

The Government of Korea

The government of Korea is in process of transition. Six years ago it was typically oriental; to-day it is essentially modern. It is Japan which has accomplished this transformation and which will doubtless in the near future perfect the governmental system which she has already outlined. The old regime in Korea was patriarchal, modelled originally after that in China. The emperor, who was regarded almost as a sacred personality, was the sole source of all authority, executive, legislative and judicial. Under him, the highest official was the prime minister, who exercised general supervision over matters of state and court. There were, further, some half dozen heads of departments, who, together with a large number of other dignitaries, formed a deliberative council which passed upon nearly all questions of administration. In addition there were well-nigh numberless bureaus and offices.