Back to Blog
Japan freeter research6/26/2023 ![]() Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4. Moreover, studying union movements ethnographically supports the argument that anthropology can provide greater appreciation of the cultural dimensions and lived experiences of activists involved in organized labour and social movements. In developed countries, the precarious and insecure position of. This study seeks to contribute to the critique that although the anthropology of Japan has taken the experiences of difference and diversity seriously, the field has paid less attention to the role of social class. Comparative Studies on NEET, Freeter, and. I situate this study within a variety of critiques surrounding the fields of the anthropology of Japan, the anthropology of labour and the anthropology of social movements. ![]() However, I also show that instilling class-consciousness in freeters is itself a complex process full of resistances, negotiations, contradictions and even rejections. Through the descriptions presented in my ethnographic chapters on these union groups, I argue that the loss of place for young irregular workers is contributing to the re-articulation of class politics and protest in post-industrial Japan. It sees freeters, young part-time workers, as emerging, new political actors that have appeared through the transition of a mode of production from Fordism to post-Fordism. This dissertation explores some of the strategies the union movements use in attempting to cultivate class-consciousness amongst freeters and other young irregular workers that feel disaffected by the limiting circumstances of the employment system and seek to confront and change their working condition. The paper also explores the historical background against which the new movements were born and have developed since the end of the Bubble economy. Drawing upon twenty months of participant observation research with four union movements attempting to organize freeters and other young irregularly employed youth, I look at how these groups attempt to politically mobilize freeters. This dissertation approaches some of these sites of freeter protest ethnographically. Within the last decade, some freeters have begun to protest against jobs that many see as exploitative and as demanding as full-time positions without the added benefits and security. However, many freeters are finding this “temporary” state difficult to move beyond. Ideally, working as a freeter is a temporary period to be replaced by full-time employment. Within Japan’s protracted economic downturn, freeters have become a complex symbol that at times are blamed, other times pitied and sometimes even celebrated for structuring their lives around jobs that are unstable, but also less demanding and potentially freeing. The subject of my dissertation is Japanese freeters, youth who work part-time or move from job to job. Discussing anti-war mobilizations, freeter unions, artists in the. Japanese irregular workers in protest : freeters, precarity and the re-articulation of class Youth Movements, Trauma and Alternative Space in Contemporary Japan published on 04.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |