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Propriety, Shame, and the State in Post-Fukushima Japan
This dissertation tracks the effects of state recognition across a series of vanishing and emerging social worlds in post-Fukushima Japan. Based upon two years of fieldwork, the dissertation focuses on ethnographic sites at which the failure of state subjectivization activates both a reinvigoration of state discourse, and the formation of counter-discourses within the temporality of Japanâs endless âpostwarâ (sengo). In so doing, the dissertation seeks to disclose the social violence and iteration of shame as it is mobilized by the state to produce an obedient subject â willing to die for the nation in war â and as the failure to conform precipitates alternate socialities that may be either opposed to or complicit with state interests.
The ethnographic sites of which I write concentrate on: the compulsory enactment of propriety in public school ceremonies, and the refusal by teachers to stand for, bow to the ânational flagâ (kokki), and sing the ânational anthemâ (kokka), the self-same imperial symbols under which Japan conducted World War II; a group of Okinawan construction workers in the old day laborer district of Tokyo, Sanya; the stigmatized âradicalâ (kageki) leftist student organization, the Zengakuren; the âinternet right-wingâ (netto uyoku) group, the Zaittokai, whose street protests are performed live before a camera; and âFukushima,â where the charge of guilt has short-circuited memories of the Japanese state sacrificing its citizens during World War II.
As a foil for the remaining ethnographic sites, the obviousness of giving ârespectâ (sonchĆ) to state symbols in public school ceremonies discloses the formation of subjects in a constitutive misrecognition that eliminates â or kills â difference in the enactment of social totality. A veritable stain on which the Japanese state drive to war was dependent, the singular figure of the sitting teacher formed part and parcel of what rightist politicians referred to as the ânegative legacyâ (fu no rekishi) of World War II. S/he constituted the object of an overcoming that â alongside the Okinawan construction worker, the âradicalâ (kageki) leftist, the âresident foreignerâ (zainichi) as object of Zaittokai hate speech, and âFukushimaâ â at once marked the ground of intensification and failure of state discourse. For the graduation ceremony of March, 2012, the official number of teachers who refused to stand and sing fell to â1â in Tokyo, where the state employs 63,000 teachers.
With neither family ties, romantic involvements, nor social recognition that would confirm their masculinity, the vanishing day laborers of Sanya made all the more insistent reference to the trope of otoko or âman.â Closely articulated with the mobster world of the yakuza with which many workers had connections, the repetition of masculinity in work, gambling, and fighting constituted a discourse that repulsed the shaming gaze of general society. Thus, the excessive life-style of the otoko was located at the constitutive margins of the social bond of propriety, where he also provided a dying reserve army of labor that could be mobilized to undertake the most undesirable tasks, such as work at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Echoing the death of Sanya, the Zengakuren numbered in the tens of thousands in the 1960s and 1970s, but had dwindled to under 100 active members in 2012. While the anti-war âstrikeâ (sutoraiki) constituted the apotheosis of the Zengakuren discourse, their espousal and shameless mandate of âviolentâ (bĆryoku) revolution subverted the origins of the Zengakuren into a prohibitive discourse which replicated the form of state rhetoric, and demanded the eradication of the Stalinist from within their own ranks.
No less shameless than the Zengakuren, the emergent hate speech of the âinternet right-wingâ (netto uyoku) iterated state discourse among the working poor. Having grown from 500 to 10,000 members within only four years, the Zaittokaiâs notorious hate speech aspired to the instantaneous effect of âkillingâ (korosu) another legacy of World War II: the âresident foreignerâ (zainichi). Yet, replicating online forms of writing, the iterability of their performative triggered repetition, and in a shamelessness specific to cyberspace â in which the reciprocity of the gaze and shame were lacking â the Zaittokai directed their paranoid speech at the state, whose representatives were said to be controlled by zainichi.
Lastly, âFukushimaâ marked the apogee of the effectivity and failures of the state in containing both the excesses of capitalism, and the ânegative legacyâ (fu no rekishi) of World War II, the memories of which were short-circuited by radioactive outpour
Fine-structure processing, frequency selectivity and speech perception in hearing-impaired listeners
The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption
This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas
Maltese society : a sociological inquiry
It seems to be the destiny of a people to reflect upon itself, to look at itself critically, comparing itself, in space and time, with the fortunes and misfortunes of others. This it does in a myriad of ways and for different reasons. Occasionally narratives about the identity of a nation are woven popularly, with 'folk sociology' - encapsulated in sayings and proverbs - providing images reflecting fears, hopes, knowledge about how the system works, or about how to work the system. At other times, narratives are developed more formally, on command even, to celebrate particular events, to highlight landmarks of historical development, or to applaud or decry the ruler or the ruled, the rebellious or the domesticated.peer-reviewe