Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
di
erent religious sect. This has been the ambivalence expressed about Soka
Gakkai
s support for Komeito. However, viewing power as if it existed based
on coercion is rooted in the conception of power as lying in a
'
.
The days where pressure to conform came more overtly from coercion rooted
in an all-powerful state or regional
'
sovereign
'
are long gone in Japan; power is
dispersed and comes from the majority consented to a particular worldview.
Particularly the media or advertising profoundly shape ideas about
'
lords
'
,as
does, for instance, the increasing bureaucratic mind-set that shapes our ideas
about what constitutes learning in a educational setting. The list could go on but
the pressure from sectarian interests, whether stemming from commercial
greed, fear of others or intrinsic bureaucracy, is real enough, but one would be
hard pressed to argue that this is particular of even typical of religious organi-
sations even as they engage in the support for one political party. I have tried
to move beyond social phenomena as zero-sum entities through exploring
what the example of young Komeito supporters teaches us about Japanese
society, about the role this religion plays in politics, and about a vision big
enough to unite them to engage in wanting to transform their society.
As discussed, we
'
self
'
cant number of young people who are politi-
cally active and committed to progressive social change through collective
action directed through formal political avenues. This is contrary to a pre-
valent view of youth as politically apathetic in Japan. First-hand, long-term
research of the case under study reveals a community that integrates based on
a new imagination about human life, an imagination that simultaneously
attempts to engage wider social issues and dilemmas of our time. This does
not mean that Soka Gakkai at the same time does not often embody and
work within the wider discourses that constitute such social dilemmas that it
simultaneously tries to address. In a sense, at the end of this topic I am no
closer to conclusively drawing up a theory (or category) to understand the
complex nature of social organisation. Meaning may be taken to be inher-
ently a social phenomenon that presupposes individual action, continuously
created and recreated in social interaction and changing circumstances.
However, looking at systems of meaning is not enough to understand the
social world, and it is not enough if your aim is social change, as is the case
for the interlocutors. The inherent contradictions that exist within modern
political systems point towards the issue fundamental to social investigations
and indeed to lived experience itself: the question of intention and how one
constitutes oneself within the social world.
find a signi
Is Gramsci helpful in understanding the Soka movement?
Soka Gakkai is a social movement that aims to change culture in profound
ways
the way people think about themselves, the way they think about
others, and the way they think about their external world. Perhaps this is
what is religious about it, that is, if religion is de
-
ned as being the space of
connections with oneself and others (and not necessarily with a god). Yet, this
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