"Environmental Politics: Local, National, and International Perspectives"

Date: January 11, 2014 (Sat.)
Time: 1pm-5pm
Place: Sophia University, Yotsuya Campus, Central Library, 9th floor, Room 921

Lecture in English
No registration necessary
Free and open to all

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PRESENTERS:

"Nuclear Energy After Fukushima: The
Choices Made by States" Akira Igata (Keio University, Graduate School of Law)

"Coalition Building between Heterogeneous Organizations in the Biodiversity Policy Arena Kenjiro Fujita (Tokyo University, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology)

"What are the Relations of a Global and Local Social Movement?:A Case Study of Iwaishima"
Yousuke Tastuno (Sophia University, Graduate School of Global Studies)

"Meaning and Frame Resonance in the Linkage of Social Movement Groups: Comparing Three Mile Island and Fukushima"
Risa Murase (Sophia University, Graduate School of Global Studies)

Commentators
Akira Suzuki (Professor, Hosei University) David Slater (Associate Professor, Sophia University) Special Guest: James M. Jasper (Professor, City University of New York)

James M. Jasper is a sociologist best known for his research on cultural and emotional aspects of human agency in social movements. Based on these perspectives, he has analyzed nuclear protest movements

(The Art of Moral Protest. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997). He has also conducted in-depth comparative research on energy policies in the United States, France, and Sweden (Nuclear Politics: Energy and the State in the United States, Sweden, and France.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990)

Themes
The goal of this symposium is twofold: to understand the multiple meanings of "nuclear" and to explore the logic behind each of these meanings. In the 20th century, confrontations by the use of force were dominant, as were illustrated by the two world wars. With the development of technology, such battle fronts have extended rapidly to the area of culture, specifically the area of meanings attributed to issues that are problematic and contested. In fact, we can conceptualize the battle

front as "space" wherein multiple and often contradictory meanings are being cast over the issues at stake. In this symposium, we focus on the battle of meanings, and explore the complexity of contestation across multiple actors in the global society.

David H. Slater, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute of Comparative Culture Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Faculty of Liberal Arts, Graduate Program in Japanese Studies Sophia University, Tokyo