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May 16, 2011

[SSJ: 6663] Workshop: The Making and Unmaking of 'Problematic' Social Groups - Struggles over Classification and Identity in 20th Century Japan. Paris, May 27-28, 2011

From: Anna K. Skarpelis
Date: 2011/05/16

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a workshop on The Making and Unmaking of 'Problematic' Social Groups - Struggles over Classification and Identity in 20th Century Japan, taking place at EHESS Paris on May 27-28, 2011. A limited number of places is still available, please email us if you would like to participate. We will also have the pleasure of screening the film Sour Strawberries by documentary filmmaker and presenter Daniel Kremers.

We hope that those in the Paris area will find the workshop of interest and will attend. More information about the participants and the conference can be found here http://makingunmaking.tumblr.com/ . For further information, please contact anna.skarpelis@gmail.com.

Best wishes,
Anna Skarpelis (New York University)

THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF 'PROBLEMATIC' SOCIAL GROUPS
- STRUGGLES OVER CLASSIFICATION AND IDENTITY IN 20TH CENTURY JAPAN


An interdisciplinary workshop
at EHESS Paris
Salle 8, 105, Boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris.
May 27 – 28, 2011

Organizer: Anna Skarpelis, Sociology, New York University[1]
Co-organizer: Mary Picone, Anthropology, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)[2]

Preliminary schedule and conference description


The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to better understand how problematic social groups are defined in Japan, and to distill a typology of categorizations of unequal worth among these groups. The term ‘problematic’ here is deliberately broadly formulated, so as to permit an analysis of groups constituted on the basis of either ascribed or achieved characteristics. Problematic, beyond designating characteristics, also alludes to the variegated consequences of group belongingness. The groups chosen as empirical cases to illustrate are old age pensioners, missing persons, colonial repatriates of war (hiki-agesha), foreign trainees and the Ainu. This deliberately heterogeneous set is assigned to two axes of reflection, (1) that of narratives of changing typologies of worth over time (pensioners, missing persons and Otaku), and (2) that of identity based on Japaneseness and mostly ascribed traits (hiki-agesha, foreign trainees, Ainu).

In the papers, we deconstruct interpretative struggles between members of the social groups themselves (through narratives of in-group members that relate to individual or collective identity and group formation), and of collective actors on the ‘problematic’ group in question (i.e. state narratives). The two underlying questions we address are: 1) By what processes are these social groups constructed?, and (2) What can our respective discipline contribute towards an interdisciplinary and more integrative theory of social categorization, in terms of understanding processes and mechanisms of classification? In terms of the latter, we approach the subject from theoretical backgrounds rooted in history, anthropology, sociology, political science, medical anthropology and Japanese studies.


May 27, Day 1. Negociating Japaneseness - the politics of integration versus discourses of foreignness in the formation of group identities

1.30 – 2.00: Coffee, welcome

2.00 – 2.30: Opening remarks and introduction of participants (Skarpelis)

2.30 – 3.30: ‘A CHANGING IDENTITY – THE DYNAMIC OF EVOLVING NARRATIVES OF THE HIKIAGESHA EXPERIENCE.
Constance Sereni (PhD candidate, Japanese studies / history, INALCO, Paris)

3.30 – 4.30 THE CASE OF JAPAN’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, THE
AINU: A UNIQUE EXAMPLE OF MARGINALIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION THROUGH TENTATIVE ASSIMILATION, FOLLOWED BY A FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION, 1868-2008. Noémi Godefroy (PhD candidate, Japanese studies/ history, INALCO,
Paris)

4.30 – 4.50 Coffee break

4.50 – 7.00 WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH FOREIGN TRAINEES?
THE MAKING OF A SOCIAL GROUP THROUGH IMMIGRATION POLICIES AND ADVOCACY IN JAPAN. Daniel Kremers (PhD candidate, political science, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany), followed by a screening of "Sour Strawberries"

> 7.00 Discussion of the first day over dinner at a
restaurant nearby

May 28, Day 2. From margins to mainstream:
Understanding changes in attributions of worth conferred upon different social groups.
Discussant of all three presentations: Prof. Glenda Roberts, Waseda University

8.40 – 9.00: Morning coffee

09.00 – 10.00 MISSING PERSONS’. THE HIDDEN, UNIDENTIFIED, UNCOUNTED, LIVING OR DEAD: AN INTERSTITIAL CATEGORY? Mary Picone (Associate professor, religion and medical anthropology, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)

10.00 – 11.00 CHANGING TYPOLOGIES OF WORTH: THE JAPANESE PENSIONER IN GOVERNMENT DISCOURSE, Anna Skarpelis (PhD candidate, sociology, New York
University)

11.00 –11.15 Coffee

11.15 – 12.15 THE PROBLEM OF CITIZEN’S GROUPS IN AN OKINAWA WITHOUT CITIZENS, Darryl Flaherty (Assistant professor, history, University of Delaware)

12.15 – 12.50 Final discussion

> Continuation of final discussion & future plans over
lunch


________________________________________
[1] anna.skarpelis@gmail.com
[2] marypicone@hotmail.com


--
Anna K. Skarpelis
New York University
Department of Sociology
http://www.mpifg.de/people/ask/index_en.asp

Approved by ssjmod at 12:22 PM