Men of Uncertainty

The Social Organization of Day Laborers in Contemporary Japan

Inbunden, Engelska, 2001

1 239 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

A fascinating exploration of the subculture of Japanese day laborers, whose lives depart radically from the traditions of stability Westerners associate with Japan.Men of Uncertainty presents an unknown side of Japanese society-the world of Japan's day laborers (hiiyatoi rodosha), the urban labor markets where these men gather to find work (yoseba), and the cheap lodging districts where many of them live (doya-gai). Nearly every major Japanese city has a yoseba. These are centers of proletariat culture in the heart of the postindustrial metropolis, similar in many ways to the prewar American skid row. Within these districts, day laborers tend to live outside the two dominant institutions of contemporary Japanese society: the nuclear family and the company.Focusing mainly on the day-laboring district of Yokohama, and with extensive comparative ethnography from five other cities, author Tom Gill finds a society of men who have opted out of the regular, communal way of life. This book details their libertarian, egalitarian lifestyle, oriented to the present yet colored by an awareness that in Japan today being a yoseba man usually means exclusion from mainstream society, absence of family life, and a career that can easily lead to homelessness and an early death on the street.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2001-01-11
Mått152 x 234 x 20 mm
Vikt499 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor281
FörlagState University of New York Press
ISBN9780791448274

Tillhör följande kategorier

Sociologi inom Samhälle och politik
Antropologi inom Samhälle och politik
Etnicitet inom Samhälle och politik
Politik och statsskick inom Samhälle och politik

List of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowedgmentsNote on the Text1. Introduction First EncounterDay Laborers in the Political Economy of JapanFieldworkOutline of the Present StudySakae2. General Historical BackgroundOverviewMushuku and HininHiyatoi : Burakumin :: Hinin : Eta?The Preindustrial ProletariatLicense, Welfare, ControlThe Ninsoku Yoseba of 1790The Industrial RevolutionThe Interwar YearsThe Postwar YosebaThe Modern Construction IndustryTadao3. Ethnography of KotobukiLocationLandscape/AtmospherePopulationHistoryEmploymentResidencePlay and Other Network ActivitiesBureaucratic SystemsHealthThe UnionKohei4. Ethnography of Other Doya-Gai and YosebaSan'ya (Tokyo)Kamagasaki (Osaka)Sasashima (Nagoya)Day Laboring in Fukuoka PrefectureOther YosebaNoriyuki5. Who Are These Men?Geographical BackgroundOccupational BackgroundAgeMarital StatusSibling Group Size and Sibling Birth OrderThe War and the Big MoveRon-chan6. The Meaning of HomeWhy Mr. Shinohara Sleeps in the StreetHomelessness: Narrow and Broad DefinitionsSymbolic Representations of HomeKuriyama7. Marginal Identity in the YosebaMarginalityFreedomFateKimitsu8. The Role of the Yoseba in Contemporary Japanese SocietyZoned ToleranceMarginal GeographyThe View from the MainstreamThe View from InsideYoseba versus Skid RowContainment versus DispersalShigehiro9. Epilgue: The Rise of Uncertainty, the Fall of SolidarityAppendix: Statistical TablesNotesGlossary of Yoseba TermsBibliographyIndex

"The topic is important because it illustrates one of the little-known underlying bases of Japan's huge economy, as well as internal contradictions in Japan's supposedly smooth-running society, and Japan's poor record at handling specific social problems. The writing is elegant and crisp. The topic is fascinating. The author knows the subject extraordinarily well, and has organized his material into a truly fine book." — Roman Cybriwsky, author of Tokyo: The Shogun's City at the Twenty-first Century"This is an important book, comprehensively treating a stratum of Japanese workers who have not yet been thoroughly described in an English-language monograph. It will make a major impact." — Gary P. Leupp, author of Servants, Shophands, and Laborers in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan