[csaa-forum] Cultural Typhoon 2007

[Melissa Gregg]

***Apologies for cross-posting.  Please circulate widely.***
 
Calls for Papers: Cultural Typhoon 2007
 
The 5th Annual Cultural Typhoon Symposium will be held in Nagoya, Japan, the hometown of Tioyota Automobile Company.  Accordingly, the theme of the symposium will be 'Citizenry, Culture & Economy', with a plenary session on 'Toyotism'.  
 
Symposium: June 29th - July 1st, 2007
Submission deadline: February 20th, 2007 (for panel proposals) or February 28th, 2007 (for paper and complete panel proposals)
 
For further details, to http://www.cultural-typhoon.org/
 
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<Citizenry/Culture/Economy>


The theme of Cultural Typhoon in Nagoya is 'Citizenry/Culture/Economy'. The globalization of the ‘economy' and the concomitant transfiguration of ‘culture' have given rise to much questioning within the humanities and social sciences; on this occasion, we seek to apprehend these issues vis-a-vis ‘citizenry'. The insertion of '/' (instead of commas) emphasizes our intention to mind the liaisons between these three terms.

So, why ‘Citizenry/Culture/Economy’in Nagoya? 

The city of Nagoya is the headquarters of Chubu (Central) ‘economic' bloc, which is inclusive of the whole of Aichi prefecture as well as other outlaying prefectures. Even during the so-called ‘Lost Decade' which followed in the wake of bubble economy’s collapse, this area maintained its economy relatively well, with unemployment rates well below the national average. This was largely due to the presence of ‘winner' corporations such as Toyota Automobile Company, whose home base is Chubu region. 

Management Studies as well as much work done within Sociology have largely accounted for this ‘success' as ‘Toyotism', a style of management which achieves high profit through inciting mutual efficiency coupled with assiduity. However, this region’s economic ‘success' cannot simply be explained through the discourse of mutual benevolence and benefit. For example, lifetime employment, which was once a trademark of Japanese-style management, is evermore being replaced by a more contingent hiring system which engages with contract workers, temporary staff, and outsourcing. Under this more transitory arrangement, employment benefits as well as negotiation rights of the worker have been slewed away, leading to reduced working conditions. It is through such cost-cutting measures that corporations have retained their competitive edge. 

It is also to be noted that in the process of this re-configuration, there has been an influx of overseas workers into the area. These overseas workers are very often employed under inferior low-wage, long-hour working conditions, and they must also face up to the difficulties of adapting to the lifestyle and culture of the local community. 

Given this state of affairs, citizens living within the Central conomic bloc are faced with a mish mashed web of ‘culture'. As in other cosmopolitan centers, globalization proceeds through the infiltration of multinational companies and repetitive consumer culture. On the other hand, migrant workers who have been called upon to settle in the area on economic grounds are creating a new hybrid culture rich in its diversity. In isolation from these currents of standardization/diversification are forms of culture firmly rooted in local history and heritage. 

These cultural transformations have manifested themselves in different ways in the realm of civic participation. One oft-cited case is Homi Housing Estate. Here, various citizens groups have extended their support to Brazilian workers of Toyota who have created a ‘Little Brazil' in the dead middle of rural Aichi. A group called ‘No. 9 Housing Estate Japanese Class Aula Do Kyuba' offers language lessons in inner city Minato Ward, and ‘International Children’s School (ELCC)' provides language support and educational aid for Filipino children living around Nagoya. On a different note, within the very precinct of the symposium, one of the co-hosts, ‘Higashi Ward Community-Nurturing Society' has long been involved in preserving the house built by Kawakami Sadayakko (1871-1946; the first woman to perform in public after centuries-old feudal prohibition was lifted, and thus known to be the first Japanese actress) and Fukuzawa Momosuke (1868-193!
 8; who built the first hydraulic power plants in Japan), as well as the mansion built by Imoto Matasaburo (who amassed his fortunes exporting Japanese porcelain). 

Nagoya has always been in possession of material condition---i.e., economic affluence and concomitant cultural and historical raw material---which would facilitate active participation in public life. However, the above examples suggest that the Nagoya ‘citizenry' scene is in the midst of a radical makeover. Until recently, Nagoya, the fourth most populated city in Japan, was known for its demographic stability, and it is said that traditional community kinship was and continues to be the font of civilian life. However, a rather different style of civilian participation was evident most recently, when a plethora of newly-formed NPOs and NGOs flocked to World Expo 2005 to partake of vision. And now, due to emergent multiculturalism brought on by global economy, there are an increasing number of new citizens' groups committed to engaging with migrant workers and their families. 

Here, plural ‘cultures' are in a state of visible negotiation and/or conflict. Symbiosis and subsumption come hand in hand with issues of discrimination and exclusion. There is much to be thought and discussed, as its effects are multivariate and multifaceted, and need to be seen from different perspectives. In juxtaposing the differences, we may perhaps forge new relationships between different problems and thus new solutions, and new possibilities of cooperation and collaboration. 

It is in this way that we seek to re-examine the actualities of mutual penetration between the domains of ‘citizenry', ‘culture' and ‘economy'. In thinking through these issues, we would like to proffer ‘Toyotism' as a key word and as the theme of the plenary session.

The ‘Toyotism' which we speak of here is not the old Japanese-style management system so celebrated during the 1980’s as the key to Japan’s economic success. It refers more to a mode of production which emerged as a result of the coming of information and post-industrial society, of emergent globalization, of structural and geographic dispersal of production, of flexible specialization, of, in other words, changes to the labor environment. 

And yet, (just as one Italian political thinker once analyzed Fordism in the early 20th century), this new mode of production is not contained within the domain of economy, but pervades our lifestyle, culture and our engagement to civil society. We would, in other words, like to seek out the resonances of ‘Toyotism' that sweep through ‘citizenry/culture/economy'. 

It need also be said that our deliberation upon ‘Toyotism' is likely to resound well beyond Nagoya or Japan. The network of ‘Toyotism' is global in its scale; it is also sometimes regarded an exemplar of other multinational corporations. To think through the ‘citizenry/culture/economy' nexus represented in ‘Toyotism' will, no doubt, corroborate with ongoing debates in cultural studies, sociology, politics, literature, art, social thought, media studies, cultural anthropology, area studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, cross-cultural communication studies, and so forth. 

Besides the main theme of ‘citizenry/culture/economy' we are also planning to set up sessions where other sub themes may be discussed. We hope that ‘citizenry', ‘culture' and ‘economy' will be the eyes of the typhoon that will hurl all of us into thought and action. 

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鶴本花織
名古屋外国語大学
現代国際学部現代英語学科　講師
〒470-0197　愛知県日進市岩崎町竹ノ山57
0561 75 2682（電話）　1729（ファックス）
tsuru at nufs.ac.jp

Kaori Tsurumoto, PhD Sociology (University of London, Goldsmiths College)
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Lecturer, School of Contemporary International Studies
57 Takenoyama Iwasaki Nisshin Aichi 470-0197 JAPAN
+81(0)561 75 2682 (tel)/1729 (fax)
tsuru at nufs.ac.jp
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