The discursive construction of hierarchy in Japanese society : an ethnographic study of secondary school clubs / Zi Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wang, Zi, author.

Series:

Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL] ; 116

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Speech and social status--Japan.

Speech and social status.

Social stratification--Japan.

Social stratification.

Clubs--Japan.

Clubs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (X, 213 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany ; Boston, Massachusetts : De Gruyter, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Seniority-based hierarchy (jouge kankei) is omnipresent in Japanese group dynamics. How one comports, depends on one’s status and position vis-à-vis others. To-date, no study shows what constitutes this hierarchy, where and when individuals growing up in Japan first come into contact with it, as well as how they learn to function in it. This book fills in the lacunae. Considering jouge kankei as a social institution and adopting a discourse analytic approach, this volume examines the ways in which institutional jouge kankei as an enduring feature of Japanese social life are created and reproduced. The monograph analyses how seniority-based relations are enacted, legitimised, transmitted, and reified by social actors through language use and paralinguistic discursive practices, such as the use of space, objects, signs, and symbols. It also looks at how established rules could be challenged. The empirical data on which findings are based are gathered through 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork from 2015 to 2018 in Japanese schools, with certain types of data (school club etiquette books and uniforms) being presented and analysed for the first time. This volume also shows continuity and change of jouge kankei from school to work.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

1 Introduction: Contextualising jouge kankei

2 Studying the discursive construction of jouge kankei in secondary school clubs

3 Ideologies, power, text, and discourse: Bukatsudou as sites of learning and socialisation in language and discourse

4 Address terms, honorific word choices, and the construction of hierarchy

5 The linguistic constitution of jouge kankei: Ideology in micro-level discourse and epistemic orders

6 Space, signs, symbols, and objects used in conjunction with discourse

7 Jouge kankei: Discursive construction, characteristics, implications and future outlook

Appendix 1: Junior High School Curriculum Guidelines, Published by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)

Appendix 2: Guidelines for codes of conduct in extra-curricular club

Appendix 3: On the Romanisation of Japanese

Appendix 4: Glossary of Japanese Terms

Appendix 5: List of Standard Abbreviations used according to the Leipzig Glossing Rules

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781501514593

1501514598

9781501514876

1501514873

OCLC:

1191863858