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Social Science Japan Journal Advance Access published online on May 13, 2008
Social Science Japan Journal, doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyn023
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. All rights reserved.

Reflections on the Trajectories of Social Science Research in Contemporary Japan

Wolfram MANZENREITER and Iris WIECZOREK

Wolfram MANZENREITER is associated with the Department of East Asian Studies at Vienna University, where he teaches modern Japanese society. His research is mostly concerned with the social and anthropological aspects of sports, popular culture, technology and labour in a globalising world. He is acting president of the German Association of Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) and is the author of several books and articles on popular culture, leisure and sport in Japan. Recent publications include the co-edited volumes Sports Mega-Events (Blackwell 2006) and Football Goes East: Business, Culture and the People's Game in East Asia (Routledge 2004). He can be reached at wolfram.manzenreiter{at}univie.ac.at
Iris WIECZOREK is Senior Research Fellow and Research Manager at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies (Hamburg). Her major research interests are innovation processes in economy and society, social movements and the relationship between politics and religion in Japan in international comparison. She regularly teaches courses at the Asian-Africa-Institute of the University of Hamburg and is a member of the board of the German Association of Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF). She is co-editor of the Japan Yearbook: Wirtschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft (Economy, Politics and Society). She can be reached at wieczorek{at}giga-hamburg.de

This survey on the science of the social sciences in Japan reflects upon a largely invisible discourse that has been hardly systematically explored so far. Since the current transformation of the field is first of all a reaction to a new global political economy of science, we introduce the concept of ‘academic neo-colonialism’ for a critical assessment of the vested and ramified dynamics impacting the social sciences. The survey features a short review of major contributions to the science of the social sciences, and evidence of the dynamics and consequences of the current process of change within the fields of social science demand, the academic division of labour and Japan's position within the international academic world. We argue that the apparent passivity of Japan's social sciences as well as the asymmetrical global flows of people, texts and ideas are a reflection of Japan's semi-peripheral position in the world system of the social sciences.

‘Science is in danger, and for that reason it is becoming dangerous’ (Bourdieu 2004: vii).


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