Abstract
It is often said that society is a Western concept and that it does not exist in the non-Western world. This chapter uses Niklas Luhmann’s theory of society to examine whether such an opinion is valid or not. In this theory, society is redefined as a self-description (of society). Based on such a viewpoint, we explore how society has been described in East Asia. In the late nineteenth century, intellectuals in Japan attempted to translate the concept of society into various expressions. In the end the word shakai was adopted. The Japanese word shakai (社会) consists of two Chinese characters, and the character sha (社) implies nature and ‘the sacred’. The meaning of those two characters are quite different from what ‘society’ or ‘Gesellschaft’ indicates. The word shakai as a translation of the word society was then imported to China, Korea, and Vietnam. As demonstrated by the adoption of the word shakai, we see that in the East the concept of society contains the nature and the integration by ‘the sacred’ in itself. This chapter concludes that society does exist in the East as the self-description (of society), and that it differs between the West and the East, especially with regard to East Asia.
This chapter is based on the paper presented and distributed at ISA (International Sociological Association) 2010 World Congress in Sweden, RC 16: Sociological Theory, Session 15: Non-Western Challenges to Western Social Theory I, Friday 16 July, at the University of Gothenburg.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Japanese word shakai as the translation of society was exported to China (shehui), Korea (sahoe), and Vietnam (xã hội).
- 2.
In recent years, several sociologists have issued writings on the notion of ‘society’ itself in various ways. For example, Yasutaka Ichinokawa (市野川容孝) published a book entitled Shakai which deals with the concept of ‘the social’ (Ichinokawa 2004), Teruhito Sako (左古輝人) wrote articles on the usage of shakai (Sako 2007, 2008), and Naoe Kimura (木村直恵 pursued the history of introducing the concept of society in Japan (Kimura 2007, 2009). Then Shōichirō Takezawa (竹沢尚一郎) issued a book entitled ‘What is Society?’, which discusses the emergence of the concept of société in France (Takezawa 2010). In addition, a book named The Birth of ‘Society’ written by Kazuhiro Kukutani (菊谷和宏) was published in 2011 (Kikutani 2011). Furthermore, Niklas Luhmann’s Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, two volumes on the theory of society, was translated into Japanese (Luhmann 1997=2009). In this way the concept of society has been gaining greater attention in Japan.
- 3.
Self-description (Selbstbeschreibung) is also the title of the last chapter of Niklas Luhmann’s magnum opus, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (Luhmann 1997).
- 4.
Seken (世間) = human relations among the people, (jinmin-)kōsai ([人民]交際) = (people’s) communication or relationship, setai (世態) = conditions of the world, shakō (社交) = relation to other people.
- 5.
Zhu-zi-xue (朱子学), or Dao-xue (道学), is the new school of Confucianism which appeared in the twelfth century. In Japan, Zhu-zi-xue had been a school of learning advocated by the Tokugawa shogunate since the seventeenth century. Intellectuals in late nineteenth-century Japan, such as Amane Nishi and Rinsho Mitsukuri, often began their academic career in the tradition of Zhu-zi-xue.
- 6.
In the translation of John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism which was published in 1877, Nishi explained society as ‘a unity where people support each other’ (「人々相養之一体」).
References
Hayashi, Megumi, 1966, ‘Houyaku ‘Shakai’ Kou’ (A Study on the Translated Word ‘Shakai’), Publications of the Institute for Comparative Studies of Culture Affiliated to Tokyo Woman’s Christian College, 21, 65–112.
Ichinokawa, Yasutaka, 2004, Shakai, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Ishida, Takeshi, 1984, Nippon no Shakai Kagaku (Social Sciences of Japan), Tokyo: The University of Tokyo Press.
Kikutani, Kazuhiro, 2011, ‘Shakai’ no Tanjo (The Birth of ‘Society’), Tokyo: Kodansha.
Kimura, Naoe, 2007, ‘Encounter with “Society”: An Introduction for a Historical Study on the Structuring of the Concept of “Society” in Meiji Era’ [in Japanese], Bulletin of Gakushuin Women’s College, 9: 1–31.
Kimura, Naoe, 2009, ‘Imaging “Society”: Understanding the Concept of “society” by scholars of Western Learning’ [in Japanese], Bulletin of Gakushuin Women’s College, 11: 1–53.
Kōtō, Yōsuke, 1991, Shakai Ninshiki to Sōzōryoku (Recognition of Society and Imagination), Nishi-Tokyo: Harvest.
Luhmann, Niklas, 1997, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (=2009, trans. by Yasuo Baba, Saburo Akahori, Ken Sugawara and Toru Takahashi, Shakai no Shakai (Society of Society), Tokyo: Hosei University Press.)
Sako, Teruhito, 2007, ‘Nani ga Shakai to Yobarete Itaka?’(What is called as Shakai?), Gendaifukushi Kenkyu, 7: 207–224.
Sako, Teruhito, 2008, ‘Shakai Gainen no Saikentou’ (Reassessment of Shakai Concept), Jimbun Gakuho, 392: 131–153
Takezawa, Shōichirō, 2010, Shakai towa Nanika (What is Society?), Tokyo: Chuo-Koron-Shinsha.
Yanabu, Akira, 1982, Hon’yakugo Seiritsu Jijō (Circumstances for Establishing Process of the Translated Words), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Akahori, S. (2018). The Self-Description of Society in East Asia: If It Is Not Society, What Else Could It Be?. In: Giri, A. (eds) Social Theory and Asian Dialogues. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7095-2_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7095-2_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7094-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7095-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)