[Bilimsel Haber] İlet: Cultural Typhoon 2007 CFP

[suletar at kulturad.org]

----- gpultar at kulturad.org tarafından iletilen ileti -----
   Tarih: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:08:37 +0200
  Kimden:  Gonul Pultar <gpultar at kulturad.org>
Yanıt Adresi:Gonul Pultar <gpultar at kulturad.org>
    Konu: Cultural Typhoon 2007 CFP
    Kime: Sule Tarakcioglu <suletar at kulturad.org>


Call for Papers: Cultural Typhoon 2007

The 5th Annual Cultural Typhoon Symposium will be held in Nagoya, Japan,
the hometown of Tioyota Automobile Company.  Accordingly, the theme of
the symposium will be 'Citizenry, Culture & Economy', with a plenary
session on 'Toyotism'.

Symposium: June 29th - July 1st, 2007
Submission deadline: February 28th, 2007 (for paper and complete panel
proposals)

For further details, to http://www.cultural-typhoon.org/

------------------------------------------------------------------------




   <Citizenry/Culture/Economy>

*The theme* of Cultural Typhoon in Nagoya is
'Citizenry/Culture/Economy'. The globalization of the ‘economy' and the
concomitant transfiguration of ‘culture' have given rise to much
questioning within the humanities and social sciences; on this occasion,
we seek to apprehend these issues vis-a-vis ‘citizenry'. The insertion
of '/' (instead of commas) emphasizes our intention to mind the liaisons
between these three terms.

So, why ‘Citizenry/Culture/Economy’in Nagoya?

The city of Nagoya is the headquarters of Chubu (Central) ‘economic'
bloc, which is inclusive of the whole of Aichi prefecture as well as
other outlaying prefectures. Even during the so-called ‘Lost Decade'
which followed in the wake of bubble economy’s collapse, this area
maintained its economy relatively well, with unemployment rates well
below the national average. This was largely due to the presence of
‘winner' corporations such as Toyota Automobile Company, whose home base
is Chubu region.

Management Studies as well as much work done within Sociology have
largely accounted for this ‘success' as ‘Toyotism', a style of
management which achieves high profit through inciting mutual efficiency
coupled with assiduity. However, this region’s economic ‘success' cannot
simply be explained through the discourse of mutual benevolence and
benefit. For example, lifetime employment, which was once a trademark of
Japanese-style management, is evermore being replaced by a more
contingent hiring system which engages with contract workers, temporary
staff, and outsourcing. Under this more transitory arrangement,
employment benefits as well as negotiation rights of the worker have
been slewed away, leading to reduced working conditions. It is through
such cost-cutting measures that corporations have retained their
competitive edge.

It is also to be noted that in the process of this re-configuration,
there has been an influx of overseas workers into the area. These
overseas workers are very often employed under inferior low-wage,
long-hour working conditions, and they must also face up to the
difficulties of adapting to the lifestyle and culture of the local
community.

Given this state of affairs, citizens living within the Central conomic
bloc are faced with a mish mashed web of ‘culture'. As in other
cosmopolitan centers, globalization proceeds through the infiltration of
multinational companies and repetitive consumer culture. On the other
hand, migrant workers who have been called upon to settle in the area on
economic grounds are creating a new hybrid culture rich in its
diversity. In isolation from these currents of
standardization/diversification are forms of culture firmly rooted in
local history and heritage.

These cultural transformations have manifested themselves in different
ways in the realm of civic participation. One oft-cited case is Homi
Housing Estate. Here, various citizens groups have extended their
support to Brazilian workers of Toyota who have created a ‘Little
Brazil' in the dead middle of rural Aichi. A group called ‘No. 9 Housing
Estate Japanese Class Aula Do Kyuba' offers language lessons in inner
city Minato Ward, and ‘International Children’s School (ELCC)' provides
language support and educational aid for Filipino children living around
Nagoya. On a different note, within the very precinct of the symposium,
one of the co-hosts, ‘Higashi Ward Community-Nurturing Society' has long
been involved in preserving the house built by Kawakami Sadayakko
(1871-1946; the first woman to perform in public after centuries-old
feudal prohibition was lifted, and thus known to be the first Japanese
actress) and Fukuzawa Momosuke (1868-1938; who built the first hydraulic
power plants in Japan), as well as the mansion built by Imoto Matasaburo
(who amassed his fortunes exporting Japanese porcelain).

Nagoya has always been in possession of material condition---i.e.,
economic affluence and concomitant cultural and historical raw
material---which would facilitate active participation in public life.
However, the above examples suggest that the Nagoya ‘citizenry' scene is
in the midst of a radical makeover. Until recently, Nagoya, the fourth
most populated city in Japan, was known for its demographic stability,
and it is said that traditional community kinship was and continues to
be the font of civilian life. However, a rather different style of
civilian participation was evident most recently, when a plethora of
newly-formed NPOs and NGOs flocked to World Expo 2005 to partake of
vision. And now, due to emergent multiculturalism brought on by global
economy, there are an increasing number of new citizens' groups
committed to engaging with migrant workers and their families.

Here, plural ‘cultures' are in a state of visible negotiation and/or
conflict. Symbiosis and subsumption come hand in hand with issues of
discrimination and exclusion. There is much to be thought and discussed,
as its effects are multivariate and multifaceted, and need to be seen
from different perspectives. In juxtaposing the differences, we may
perhaps forge new relationships between different problems and thus new
solutions, and new possibilities of cooperation and collaboration.

It is in this way that we seek to re-examine the actualities of mutual
penetration between the domains of ‘citizenry', ‘culture' and ‘economy'.
In thinking through these issues, we would like to proffer ‘Toyotism' as
a key word and as the theme of the plenary session.

The ‘Toyotism' which we speak of here is not the old Japanese-style
management system so celebrated during the 1980’s as the key to Japan’s
economic success. It refers more to a mode of production which emerged
as a result of the coming of information and post-industrial society, of
emergent globalization, of structural and geographic dispersal of
production, of flexible specialization, of, in other words, changes to
the labor environment.

And yet, (just as one Italian political thinker once analyzed Fordism in
the early 20th century), this new mode of production is not contained
within the domain of economy, but pervades our lifestyle, culture and
our engagement to civil society. We would, in other words, like to seek
out the resonances of ‘Toyotism' that sweep through
‘citizenry/culture/economy'.

It need also be said that our deliberation upon ‘Toyotism' is likely to
resound well beyond Nagoya or Japan. The network of ‘Toyotism' is global
in its scale; it is also sometimes regarded an exemplar of other
multinational corporations. To think through the
‘citizenry/culture/economy' nexus represented in ‘Toyotism' will, no
doubt, corroborate with ongoing debates in cultural studies, sociology,
politics, literature, art, social thought, media studies, cultural
anthropology, area studies, gender studies, ethnic studies,
cross-cultural communication studies, and so forth.

Besides the main theme of ‘citizenry/culture/economy' we are also
planning to set up sessions where other sub themes may be discussed. We
hope that ‘citizenry', ‘culture' and ‘economy' will be the eyes of the
typhoon that will hurl all of us into thought and action.

------------------------------------------------------------------------






----- İletilen iletinin sonu -----