Awareness Context and Social Recognition: Reconsidering a Case Study of “Dialogue” between Different Ethnic Persons in Japan

Ken’ichi Yamaguchi

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.19.3.04

Authors

Ken’ichi Yamaguchi Fukuyama City University, Japan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4348-3853

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.19.3.04

Keywords:

Awareness Context, Social Recognition, Consensus, Symbolic Interactionism, Grounded Theory, Critical Theory, Social Justice Inquiry, Zainichi Korean, Conflicts between Traditional Cultural Community and Modern Society

Abstract

This study incorporates Honneth’s social recognition into awareness context theory by reconsidering a case study of the dialogue between Zainichi Korean and Japanese people in Japan. It revitalizes the theoretical significance of Strauss’ symbolic interactionism in terms of its focus on power dynamics and conflicts between the majority and minorities that differ in the cultural or ethnic background in modern global society. Incorporating critical theory into symbolic interactionism is a method of enhancing its contemporary significance. However, the discrepancy between them remains unresolved. There are some previous studies on Zainichi Koreans’ dialogue and the public sphere. Still, this case uniquely fits the aim of this study. As a result, it proposes both a substantive theory as a social justice inquiry in Japanese society and a modified formal theory of awareness context by adopting the theoretical perspective coined in this study and using abductive reasoning in the reconsideration. The substantive theory proposes a joint action characterized by unending mutual recognition and pragmatist dissent as a pragmatist public sphere between different ethnic persons in Japan. It is a method of grassroots communication that realizes liberal democracy as the form of modern society in Japan, liberating people from the Japanese communitarian mindset of Wa. The formal theory proposes new awareness contexts focusing on information and social recognition, which applies to the majority-minority relationship that differs in cultural or ethnic backgrounds from a theoretical perspective by focusing on conflicts between traditional cultural communities and modern society. Additionally, as an implication of this study, a pluralistic character of symbolic interactionism united by common frameworks of formal theories is proposed.

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Author Biography

Ken’ichi Yamaguchi, Fukuyama City University, Japan

Ken’ichi Yamaguchi is an associate professor at Fukuyama City University, Japan. He is a symbolic interactionist who studies A. L. Strauss’ interactionism and grounded theory. His research areas are intercultural or interethnic communication, multicultural conviviality in Japan, and social justice inquiry in everyday life. Recently, he focused on inquiring about the incorporation of critical communication theory into symbolic interactionism, the applicability of symbolic interactionism to non-western society, and the development of grounded theory methodology for a case study.

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