Secularization, Deprivatization, and the Reappearance of ‘Public Religion’ in Japanese Society

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Mullins
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
Allied Occupation ◽  
Restoration Movement ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Religion In Public Life

Abstract Sociological theories about the fate of religion in modern societies originated in Europe and were initially based on the history of Western Christianity. Whether or not these theoretical perspectives are useful for the analysis of other religious traditions in non-Western regions of the world has been the focus of considerable debate for decades. This article engages some of the familiar theories of secularization in light of major developments in Japanese religion and society over the past two centuries. While it has been widely assumed that modernization inevitably brings with it a decline in religion, the first phase of this process in Japan was accompanied by the creation of a powerful new form of religion—State Shintō—that served to unite the nation around a common set of symbols and institutions for half a century. This was followed by the rapid and forced secularization of Shintō during the Allied Occupation (1945-1952), which essentially privatized or removed it from public institutions. Since the end of the Occupation, however, there has been an ongoing movement to restore the special status of Shintō and its role in the public sphere. Even though recent case studies and survey research indicate that individual religiosity and organized religions are facing serious decline today, the reappearance of religion in public life and institutions represented by this restoration movement also needs to be taken into account in our assessment of secularization in contemporary Japan.

The Lost Lullaby and Other Stories about Being an Armenian in Turkey

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 67-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Bilal
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Armenian Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Different Cultures

Nınçir mangig im sirasun, Oror yem asum, Baydzar lusinn e meğm hayum, Ko ororotsum.By analyzing the transmission of Armenian lullabies within the changing contexts of identity and cultural politics in Turkey, this paper addresses displacement and loss as two interrelated experiences shaping the sense of being an Armenian in Turkey. I criticize the liberal multiculturalist perspective that represents cultures in a way that cuts the link between the past and the present, by dissociating different cultures from the history of their presence in Anatolia and the destruction of that presence. I argue that in such a context where cultures are detached from lived experiences and memory, it becomes impossible to share the stories of violence and pain in the public sphere; hence, the loss itself becomes the experience of being Armenian. Finally, I try to explain how today young generations of Armenians in İstanbul, in their search for an Armenian identity, have developed a certain way of belonging to the space and culture, a way of belonging that is very much shaped by the experience of loss.

scholarly journals Nowe formy instytucjonalizacji pamięci na Bałkanach i w Polsce (komparatystyczne studium trzech przypadków)

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Magdalena Bogusławska
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Major Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Polish Jews ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

The subject of the article is the characteristics of modern forms of memory institutionalization – the kind of commemorative practices and the related production and dissemination of knowledge in the public space. This topic seems especially important but also controversial in post-socialist countries, in which a major process of revision of the past is continues. This process becomes a part of the political pluralization of the public sphere and the expression of the emancipation of various previously marginalized groups. Using the example of the three museum:Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Sovereignty and Independence, War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo and „Polin” Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the author discusses: – the articulation and afirmation of subjectivity by means of museum as an institution– the mechanism for shaping the authority of institutions so as to legimitize the interpretation of the past– the relationship between the particular, often fragmented registers of the memory and the dominant power discourses.

scholarly journals Theoretical Basics of Internal Auditing at Public Administration Institutions

2007 ◽  
pp. 154-159
Author(s):  
Kornélia Ficzeréné Nagymihály ◽  
Ágnes Csiszárik-Kocsir ◽  
István Zsombor Hágen
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Informative Approach

In the past months, in the time of the reforms of the new millennium, the modernisation and transformation of the public sphere have been a constant issue in Hungary due to globalisation and the country’s accession to the European Union. The provision of transparency and comparability is required from each member state by the challenges of globalisation, legal harmonisation and the unification process. That is why it is essential to harmonise and adjust to one another the internal and external auditing systems of public institutions on the levels of both the institutions and sectors. The study reviews the theoretical foundations and basic principles of the public institutions’ internal auditing system, as well as it aims to provide an overall picture of the legal background of the auditing system and its changes. By including the main principles, standards and the most important regulations, the study’s informative approach aims to assist anyone interested in the further and deeper research into the subject.

Saussure and psychoanalytic feminism — a made match

1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-102
Author(s):  
Olga Cox
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Psychoanalytic Feminism

AbstractOver the past thirty years Lacanian psychoanalysis, by mapping psychoanalytic concepts onto the terminology of modern linguistics has seemed to radically alter the former, and to a large extent has done so. However, Lacan's insistence that we are formed by, and enmeshed in, language, occults an opposite truth; one that is evidenced by the history of politics and of art, and although psychoanalysis has traditionally remained rigidly apolitical, concentrating on the private and familial rather than the public sphere, it can hardly avoid, even in this sphere, a confrontation with the politics of feminism. Because of its particular appropriation of ‘word’ and ‘language’, Lacanian psychoanalysis finds itself in a contraditory position here. In the private sphere it liberates the little girl by the true ‘word’, while continuing to maintain, in the wider world of language, a now archaic discourse which subsumes both discourses into one, masculine one.

The Suffering of the Perpetrators: The Ethics of Traumatic German Historicity in Karen Bass's Young Adult World War II Novels

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Doris Wolf
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adult World ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper examines two young adult novels, Run Like Jäger (2008) and Summer of Fire (2009), by Canadian writer Karen Bass, which centre on the experiences of so-called ordinary German teenagers in World War II. Although guilt and perpetration are themes addressed in these books, their focus is primarily on the ways in which Germans suffered at the hands of the Allied forces. These books thus participate in the increasingly widespread but still controversial subject of the suffering of the perpetrators. Bringing work in childhood studies to bear on contemporary representations of German wartime suffering in the public sphere, I explore how Bass's novels, through the liminal figure of the adolescent, participate in a culture of self-victimisation that downplays guilt rather than more ethically contextualises suffering within guilt. These historical narratives are framed by contemporary narratives which centre on troubled teen protagonists who need the stories of the past for their own individualisation in the present. In their evacuation of crucial historical contexts, both Run Like Jäger and Summer of Fire support optimistic and gendered narratives of individualism that ultimately refuse complicated understandings of adolescent agency in the past or present.

A Long, Long Way

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Garrett
Keyword(s):  
People Of Color ◽  
Racial Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hollywood Films ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race And Culture

Hollywood films are perhaps the most powerful storytellers in American history, and their depiction of race and culture has helped to shape the way people around the world respond to race and prejudice. Over the past one hundred years, films have moved from the radically prejudiced views of people of color to the depiction of people of color by writers and filmmakers from within those cultures. In the process, we begin to see how films have depicted negative versions of people outside the white mainstream, and how film might become a vehicle for racial reconciliation. Religious traditions offer powerful correctives to our cultural narratives, and this work incorporates both narrative truth-telling and religious truth-telling as we consider race and film and work toward reconciliation. By exploring the hundred-year period from The Birth of a Nation to Get Out, this work acknowledges the racist history of America and offers the possibility of hope for the future.

scholarly journals Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice: Tensions Between Core Values in American Librarianship

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Emily J. M. Knox
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Intellectual Freedom ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

AbstractOver the past few years, tensions between two core values in U.S. librarianship, intellectual freedom and social justice, have roiled the profession. This conflict was most recently seen in the insertion and subsequent removal of “hate groups” to the list of entities that cannot be denied access to library meeting rooms in the American Library Association’s Meeting Rooms Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. This paper is intended to provide context for this conflict. It begins by situating its arguments within ethical philosophy, specifically the study of values or axiology. It then provides an overview of the theoretical foundations of the values of liberalism. Next, the paper discusses the values of truth and freedom from harm in librarianship. Finally, it suggests that a fuller understanding of the library’s place within the public sphere is a possible model for mitigating the tensions currently found in American librarianship. The paper is intended to provide a theoretical foundation for further research.

The Landscape of War and the Transformations of the Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
Dijana Alic
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Time Space ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Modern Warfare ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Edward Soja

On 6 april 1992, the european union (eu) recognised bosnia and hercegovina as a new independent state, no longer a part of the socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia. The event marked the start of the siege of sarajevo, which lasted nearly four years, until late february 1996. It became the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, outlasting the leningrad enclosure by a year. During its 1425 days, more than 11,500 people were killed. The attacks left a trail of destruction across the city, which began to transform it in ways not experienced before. This paper explores how the physical transformation of sarajevo affected the ways in which meaning and significance were assigned to its built fabric. I argue that the changes imposed by war and the daily destruction of the city challenged long-established relationships between the built fabric and those who inhabited the city, introducing new modes of thinking and interpreting the city. Loosely placing the discussion within the framework of ‘Thirdspace', established by urban theorist and cultural geographer edward soja, i discuss the relationship that emerged between the historicality, sociality and spatiality of war-torn sarajevo. Whether responding to the impacts of physical destruction or dramatic social change, the nexus of time, space and being shows that the concept of spatiality is essential to comprehending the world and to adjusting to and resisting the impact of extraordinary circumstances. Recognising the continuation of daily life as essential to survival sheds light on processes of renewal and change in a war-affected landscape. These shattered urban spaces also show the ways in which people make a sense of place in relation to specific socio-historical environments and political contexts.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING LAW AND RELIGION AS CULTURE: MAKING ROOM FOR MEANING IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2006
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between law and religion in contemporary civil society has been a topic of increasing social interest and importance in Canada in the past many years. We have seen the practices and commitments of religious groups and individuals become highly salient on many issues of public policy, including the nature of the institution of marriage, the content of public education, and the uses of public space, to name just a few. As the vehicle for this discussion, I want to ask a straightforward question: When we listen to our public discourse, what is the story that we hear about the relationship between law and religion? How does this topic tend to be spoken about in law and politics – what is our idiom around this issue – and does this story serve us well? Though straightforward, this question has gone all but unanswered in our political and academic discussions. We take for granted our approach to speaking about – and, therefore, our way of thinking about – the relationship between law and religion. In my view, this is most unfortunate because this taken-for-grantedness is the source of our failure to properly understand the critically important relationship between law and religion.

Reflections on the Public Interpretation of Regional Environmental History In Western Pennsylvania

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-69
Author(s):  
Chris J. Magoc
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Public History ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Interpretation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Natural Resource Extraction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Environmental Histories ◽  
Western Pennsylvania

This essay attempts to counter the scarcity of efforts to address issues of natural resource extraction and environmental exploitation in public history forums. Focused on western Pennsylvania, it argues that the history of industrial development and its deleterious environmental impacts demands a regional vision that not only frames these stories within the ideological and economic context of the past, but also challenges residents and visitors to consider this history in light of the related environmental concerns of our own time. The essay explores some of the difficult issues faced by public historians and practitioners as they seek to produce public environmental histories that do not elude opportunities to link past and present in meaningful ways.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document