18.03.2020Politics in Displaced and Individualized Practices: From the Protest Journey Experience in Japan

Please see also the respective notes in the UZH's Agenda.

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Kyoko Tominaga (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)

Date and Time

March 18, 2020, 12:15 - 1:45 pm

Abstract

This lecture investigates how activists realize the prefiguration in their mobilization process in Japan. Recently, scholars have shown increasing interest in prefigurative politics, but their focus is mainly on place-based and community-based movements by groups and networks. A focus on activists’ journey to protest events is called for because prefiguration should be founded in not only collective but non-place-based activism conducted by individuals. This study aima to articulate the concept of prefiguration while focusing on the protest journey that is practiced by Japanese activists. Analyzing the interviews of twenty-five protest tourists using the theorization of prefiguration by previous research, this paper argues that activists embody and experiment with their vision of an alternative world in the journey experiences, but conduct and consolidate their prefigurative practices in the process of place-based movement. However, the practices of the journey play an important role in socializing activists and leading them to conduct, consolidate, and diffuse their practices in place-based collective action.

Location

University of Zurich, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Room ZUB 314, Zürichbergstrasse 4, 8032 Zürich

Organisation

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Japanese Studies