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UID:4e86d338-0e18-4354-9d1a-953bb19c54fc@nexttoyou
DTSTAMP:20261105T152909Z
DTSTART:20261106T003000Z
DTEND:20261106T020000Z
SUMMARY:The Fate of the Social in Modern Life: American Social Scientists 
 and Japan as Archive
LOCATION:Lathrop Library 224\, 518 Memorial Way\, Stanford\, CA 94305
DESCRIPTION:In the decades following World War II\, American social scient
 ists turned to the study of Japanese society as an emerging ally and fell
 ow capitalist democracy. At a time when influential theories of moderniza
 tion predicted the decline of kinship\, community\, hierarchy\, and colle
 ctive obligation\, Japan presented a puzzle. It was an advanced industria
 l and capitalist society in which village\, family\, corporate welfare\, 
 and moral persuasion in public institutions played powerful roles in orga
 nizing everyday life.\n\n​This talk examines how postwar scholars treated
  Japan not simply as an object of study but as a site for thinking throug
 h a larger problem in modern social thought: the relationship between ind
 ividual freedom and social solidarity. Drawing on chapters from a larger 
 book project\, I revisit three influential studies of Japan: Ruth Benedic
 t's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946)\, Ezra Vogel's Japan's New Mid
 dle Class (1963)\, and Thomas Rohlen's For Harmony and Strength (1974). I
  argue that these works are best understood not only as interpretations o
 f Japan but also as reflections on what I call the "social question" in p
 ostwar thought: how modern societies cultivate attachment\, obligation\, 
 welfare\, and collective purpose while preserving democratic freedoms and
  individual autonomy. By placing these texts in conversation\, the talk s
 uggests that postwar Japan functioned as a distinctive archive for thinki
 ng about enduring questions of social reproduction and social solida\n\nh
 ttp://next-to-u.app/events/4e86d338-0e18-4354-9d1a-953bb19c54fc
URL:http://next-to-u.app/events/4e86d338-0e18-4354-9d1a-953bb19c54fc
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