Author: Robert J. Pekkanen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317754425
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
Although local neighborhood associations are found in many countries, Japan’s are distinguished by their ubiquity, scope of activities, and very high participation rates, making them important for the study of society and politics. Most Japanese belong to one local neighborhood association or another, making them Japan’s most numerous civil society organization, and one that powerfully shapes governance outcomes in the country. And, they also often blur the state-society boundary, making them theoretically intriguing. Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan draws on a unique and novel body of empirical data derived from the first national survey of neighborhood associations carried out in 2007 and provides a multifaceted empirical portrait of Japan’s neighborhood associations. It examines how local associational structures affect the quality of local governance, and thus the quality of life for Japan’s citizens and residents, and illuminates the way in which these ambiguous associations can help us refine civil society theory and show how they contribute to governance. As well as outlining the key features of neighbourhood associations, the book goes on to examine in detail the way in which neighbourhood associations contribute to governance, in terms of social capital, networks with other community organizations, social service provision, cooperation with local governments and political participation. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japanese politics, Japanese society, anthropology, urban studies as well as those interested in social capital and civil society.
Author: Kurt Steiner
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804702171
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 588
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Book Description
A Stanford University Press classic.
Author: André Sorensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134143192
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. This volume examines the growth and nature of civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance.
Author: Carola Hein
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134341490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364
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Book Description
Adding a new perspective to the current literature on decentralization in Japan, Cities, Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan, approaches the subject from an urban studies and planning approach. The essays in the collection present a cogent compilation of case studies focusing on the past, present and future of decentralization in Japan. These include small scale development in the fields such as citizen participation (machizukuri), urban form and architecture, disaster prevention and conservation of monuments. The contributors suggest that new trends are emerging after the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and assess them in the context of the country's larger socio-political system. This in-depth analysis of the development outside of Japan provides a valuable addition to students of Urban, Asian and Japanese Studies.
Author: Benjamin L. Read
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134006691
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
This edited collection brings together enterprising pieces of new research on the many forms of organization in East and Southeast Asia that are sponsored or mandated by government, but engage widespread participation at the grassroots level. Straddling the state-society divide, these organizations play important roles in society and politics, yet remain only dimly understood. This book shines a spotlight on this phenomenon, which speaks to fundamental questions about how such societies choose to organize themselves, how institutions of local governance change over time, and how individuals respond to and make use of the power of the state. The contributors investigate organizations ranging from volunteer-based organizations that partner with government in providing services for homeless children, to state-managed networks of neighborhood- or village-level associations that perform representative as well as administrative functions and seeks to answer a number of questions: When do the "vertical," top-down imperatives of the state stifle "horizontal" solidarities, and when might the two work in harmony? Are useful social and administrative purposes served by this type of fusion? Does it amplify or merely muffle citizens’ voices? What does it tell us about existing accounts of community, social capital, "synergy," "complementarity," "subsidiarity," and related concepts? Representing seven countries: China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore this volume will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in Asian studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, development, history, nonprofit studies.
Author: Sally A. Hastings
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Community development, Urban
Languages : en
Pages : 594
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Book Description
Author: Purnendra Jain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Central-local government relations
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Case study of the public housing policy of Tokyo Metropolis in the 1950s.
Author: Yasumasa Kuroda
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824879147
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313
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Book Description
This book is a community study that in its own right illuminates various facets of political change and dynamics even in Japanese national life, and points out various fruitful directions for further studies of Japanese town and urban politics. The work was written for the dual purpose of developing a theory of community power structure and political change and of understanding and describing the politics of a small Japanese town.
Author: Purnendra Jain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Local government
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
Author: Yasuhito Kinoshita
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520075951
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Faced with the decline of the traditional family and the explosive growth of the over-65 population, the Japanese are looking for new ways to care for their elders. This timely study documents the birth of a major social phenomenon in Japan—the planned retirement community. In the mid-1980s, Yasuhito Kinoshita spent a year living in Japan's first such community, Fuji-no-Sato. His collaboration with Christie W. Kiefer, a cultural gerontologist, is the first detailed study of a retirement community in a non-Western culture. Fuji-no-Sato is a social community with no visible traditions. Kinoshita and Kiefer show that its residents' preference for long-established relationships creates the need for the invention of relationships that have no precedent in Japanese society. This book reveals much about Japanese culture, and about the "graying of society" that plagues the newly industrialized countries of Asia. Its lessons about sensitivity to the elderly's values and the need for clear communication have important applications in other cultures as well.
