A Society in Which People Demonstrate: Karatani Kōjin and the Politics of the Anti-nuclear Movement. Brown, A.
abstract   bibtex   
In this paper I outline philosopher and literary critic Karatani Kōjin's theoretical reflections on the recent wave of anti-nuclear protests in Japan. Karatani uses the notion of "a society in which people demonstrate" to describe the form of direct democracy he sees emerging in the antinuclear movement. I critically engage with Karatani's historiography of democracy and demonstrations in Japan and explain that his sometimes historically inaccurate views are a reflection of his own ambivalent and changing relationship with street politics. I then explore the contradictions between Karatani's stated view that demonstrations are a relatively new and weak part of the Japanese polity and his attempt to ground the broader notion of "a society in which people demonstrate" in indigenous Japanese democratic traditions. Finally, I explain how through his recent studies of ancient Greek political thought Karatani has tried to carve out a pre-history for the form of participatory democracy he expresses through the notion of "a society in which people demonstrate". I conclude by pointing to the centrality of democracy in the face of the clear limitations of parliamentary government exposed by the Fukushima disaster within the context of a global crisis of faith in existing democratic institutions.
@article{brown_society_nodate-1,
	title = {A {Society} in {Which} {People} {Demonstrate}: {Karatani} {Kōjin} and the {Politics} of the {Anti}-nuclear {Movement}},
	abstract = {In this paper I outline philosopher and literary critic Karatani Kōjin's theoretical reflections on the recent wave of anti-nuclear protests in Japan. Karatani uses the notion of "a society in which people demonstrate" to describe the form of direct democracy he sees emerging in the antinuclear movement. I critically engage with Karatani's historiography of democracy and demonstrations in Japan and explain that his sometimes historically inaccurate views are a reflection of his own ambivalent and changing relationship with street politics. I then explore the contradictions between Karatani's stated view that demonstrations are a relatively new and weak part of the Japanese polity and his attempt to ground the broader notion of "a society in which people demonstrate" in indigenous Japanese democratic traditions. Finally, I explain how through his recent studies of ancient Greek political thought Karatani has tried to carve out a pre-history for the form of participatory democracy he expresses through the notion of "a society in which people demonstrate". I conclude by pointing to the centrality of democracy in the face of the clear limitations of parliamentary government exposed by the Fukushima disaster within the context of a global crisis of faith in existing democratic institutions.},
	language = {en},
	author = {Brown, Alexander},
	keywords = {⛔ No DOI found},
}

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