THEME

DISPLACEMENTS AND POTENTIALS

WHEN

8 & 9 DECEMBER, 2018

LOCATION

NANZAN UNIVERSITY, NAGOYA

Contemporary Japan faces continuing social and cultural instability and upheaval. New patterns of displacement are emerging as socialization processes change and as economic realities filter through to major social institutions. Displacement can occur as a result of a sudden event, such as calamities like 3.11 and the ensuing humanitarian and economic crises. Displacement may develop through long-held prejudices that manifest in social inequalities. Major health issues, such as the rise of dementia in elderly people at a time when people are living longer and increasing cases of autism and other disorders, leave the medical system at a loss. Truancy is clearly a serious and continuing threat to the education system; on the one hand, while truancy amongst Japanese school-age children is investigated by local boards of education, the ever-increasing numbers of school-age children of foreign nationality, many of whom may feel displaced already in Japanese society, are not.

As gaps widen between social actors and social structure, giving rise to inevitable tensions, and as people find themselves in unknown and unfamiliar territory, they are forced to adjust their lives and cultural assumptions to deal with these situations. How do people negotiate the displacements of contemporary life? How do they reveal the potential that living with the unfamiliar raises? What possibilities do social media technologies offer? What can anthropological and other studies offer in terms of focusing their lenses on displacements and their potentials?

We invite proposals – individual papers and panels – that focus on the theme of displacements and potentials, in addition to welcoming proposals that offer different approaches.