Japenese Encounters With Postmod

Book excerpt: This is a systematic study of the sociological debate on postmodernity in the Japanese context. The volume consists of a collection of 12 papers that explore the idea of postmodernity primarily from sociological perspectives, covering a wide range of domains including work, feminism, communication, science and technology, social stratification, fine arts and literature. The contributors come from diverse disciplines ranging from sociology and history to political science and linguistics. They include advocates of postmodern theories and postmodernist analyses of Japanese society, as well as critics who argue that a suitable revised theory of modernity is still an adequate framework for comparing Japan and the West. Others take the view that an intermediate position might be more productive; that a qualified or provisional version of postmodern can throw new light on issues traditionally neglected by social theory. While the postmodernity debate has been carried out chiefly in the context of European and American experiences, this book aims to pave the way for the postmodernity question to be explored in the non-western but highly industrialized setting of Japan, and brings forward a series of open-ended questions about the bias in the debate. Written by academics based in universities in Japan and Australia, the volume itself is postmodern in its internal diversity and multi-cultural orientation.