Making local and regional sociological contributions relevant to global sociology: The case of Japanese Key Texts
Language: English
The ISA’s series, SAGE Studies in International Sociology (SSIS), founded in 1974,
encourages collective efforts to promote debates of international significance and map out future trends of sociological importance. However, the question of how to make local and regional sociological contributions relevant to global sociology, and more importantly, how to leverage this series ’platform to stimulate local and regional sociological investigations, remains under-discussed.
This session will focus on the latest SSIS series book, Key Texts for Japanese Sociology, which is a good example of what ISA publishing platform can enable. Despite being rich, diverse, unique, and engaging, Japan's sociological contributions have been internationally underrepresented. This book addresses this imbalance through its thoughtful translation and curation of key Japanese sociological texts, breaking new ground in the field. Comprising 17 chapters that span seven decades, it surveys classical studies from post-war Japan to contemporary sociological issues.
However, the impact does not necessarily end with the book’s publication. We invite the book’s editor, Hideo Nakazawa, who will share his experience of curating this text as well as his views and responses to some of the questions and feedback received since the book’s publication. The session showcases how every publication of the ISA Book series can become the start of a much wider and more collaborative conversation.