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February 16, 2011

[SSJ: 6529] Shaken social science dissertation workshop Feb 24--landmines and civil society

From: John Campbell
Date: 2011/02/16

At the next session of the social science dissertation workshop at ISS, on Feb 24,* we will hear from Melanie Wacker, who is in the second year of a PhD in the "Risk and East Asia" program at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen. Currently she is at Shaken for her fieldwork on "Shifting responsibility and risks - the case of Japan and its policy toward landmines and cluster munitions."

Her project focuses on Japan's policy related to the Ottawa Process (land mines, 1996-7) and the Oslo process (cluster munitions 2008). Civil society actors identify security risks differently from realist concepts. She traces complicated negotiations among lots of actors, civil and otherwise, both before and after the treaties came into effect. The goal is to see how the "recalibration of security risks lead to a change in the institutional arrangement of Japan's landmines and cluster munition policy and thus to a change in the distribution of responsibility." She says she has had better access to civil society actors as opposed to the state side, and hopes that suggestions from the group will be helpful on such practical issues as well as in clarifying her approach.

I'd appreciate hearing from you about whether you will be coming or not, and I'm happy to respond to queries about the workshop in general.

jc

*Meetings of the Shaken Social Science Dissertation Workshop start at 12 pm and go to 1:30 and sometimes beyond. The Institute of Social Science provides coffee and tea and you are welcome to bring lunch. The location is a seminar room on the 5th floor in the Akamon General Research (Sougou Kenkyuu) Building.
The building is down a little passage to the right
after you come through Akamon. For a map, go to:

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/campusmap/cam01_08_02_e.html

Approved by ssjmod at 05:00 PM