Tabuchi Rokuro

Although family sociology in Japan has a long history, sociological family studies in Japan have undergone major changes since the 1990s. This article recounts the ways in which family sociology in Japan has developed and its current state, with a special focus on the developments in the last three decades. The 1990s marked a turning point in the history of Japanese family sociology in terms of the establishment of new academic societies and a paradigmatic shift in theoretical orientations. The trends in family research articles indicate the continuing importance of quantitative research, with the role of qualitative research on the rise over the last two decades. In reviewing the literature over the last three decades, the author summarizes four major strands of empirical research: (a) care and families, (b) social inequality and families, (c) comparative research, and (d) diversity of families.

This paper argues that a 'family strategy' perspective is of theoretical import in order to better analyze contemporary intergenerational relationships. A family strategy perspective began to be used in studies of family history and is now widely applied in various areas of contemporary family studies. Due to social structural changes in the past few decades such as changing age structures and changing family norms, today's intergenerational relationships are more likely to be characterized by 'intergenerational ambivalence': the existence of contradictory expectations between generations. A family strategy perspective can describe and interpret how 'intergenerational ambivalence' is experienced by different actors and managed by them in everyday practice. The author argues that there are two different approaches to pursue studies on intergenerational ambivalence: the rational choice approach and the symbolic interactionist approach. This paper shows how intergenerational proximity can be examined effectively from a family strategy perspective.

家族、社会学

What are the implications of increasing globalization and individualization for the contemporary family? The purpose of this symposium is to consider this new issue of family studies from the perspective of old age, i.e., the last stage of the life-course.<br>Even though previous researches considered topics such as how family relationships are modified by old age and very old age, or the way in which the modern family is affected by the transformation of intergenerational relations, very few have faced these issues by considering not only intra-family ties (family and kinship) but also a wider network of ties deriving, from globalization and individualization. Therefore we focus here on new social ties in old age in this important context. In particular, we specifically consider the mediation between the macro and the micro levels operated by mesosystems such as the local community, as well as the results of the interaction of research and practice, with a greater collaboration among the points of view of sociology, the sociology of law, and NPOs, in order to challenge this theme of family studies.

Over the past few decades, in examining the social causes of low fertility in advanced societies, sociologists and demographers have shown increasing interest in southern European countries. Italy has been recognized as one of these countries plagued by lowest-low fertility. In general, the literature has depicted certain characteristics of Italian families as possible causes of fertility decline. This article examines the situation of contemporary Italian families and intergenerational relationships from a sociological point of view, particularly in comparison with Japanese families. It has sometimes been argued that strong familism characterizes Italian families and society. According to this view, one of the causes of fertility decline in Italy is the continuity of strong families. Empirical data suggest, however, that this familism perspective cannot explain the differences in family patterns observed among Italian regions. In addition, a comparison between Italy and Japan with respect to intergenerational relationships suggests that there are substantial differences between the two countries. It is suggested that a further exploration of the various aspects of social contexts is needed in order to clarify what is distinctive about contemporary Italian families. © 2008 The Japan Sociological Society.

This paper reports the results of the research by the Sumatra Earthquake Interdisciplinary or Integrated Research Team of Nagoya University.

Tsunami evacuation plannings have been built on "alert-evacuation" model, which assumes "tsunami alert -transmission -evacuation behavior" connection. Analyzing the data on the behavior of residents (n=1,710) in coastal area of Aichi prefecture after the tsunami warning on September 5, 2004, the results indicated that only a few residents evacuated despite their strong concerns on tsunami. This behavioral pattern results from the "empirical knowledge" which was gained by their past experience of not evacuating after a tsunami alert. In order to transform this knowledge, we need to build a new evacuation model based on the understandings of ambiguity which people face in disasters.

本稿は、近年の家族研究において注目されている構築主義的研究の動向を紹介することを目的とする。ここで構築主義的研究とは、以下で述べる意味で「構築主義的」な理論枠組みを採用していると考えられる研究を指す。関連する研究動向の紹介としては、拙稿 (田渕, 1996, 1998) のほかに、構築主義的家族研究を代表する研究であるGubrium and Holstein (1990) の訳書「あとがき」に訳者等による紹介があり、宮坂 (1999) や土屋 (1999) も関連する実証研究の動向を整理している。本稿は研究動向の紹介を網羅的に行う紙幅を欠くため、紹介はこれら先行研究に挙げられている文献と重複しないものを優先していることをお断りしておきたい。