Comments on: Precarious Sociality http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Sat, 26 May 2012 03:33:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Savage Minds Rewind: The Best of 2009 | Savage Minds http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-634131 Savage Minds Rewind: The Best of 2009 | Savage Minds Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:29:52 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-634131 [...] Parvis Mahdavi contributed on her work on the sexual revolution in Iran. Anne Allison wrote about precarious socialities of Japanese youth. Ken MacLeish posted on the wounds of war and the dilemmas of stereotype. And Olumide Abimbola [...] [...] Parvis Mahdavi contributed on her work on the sexual revolution in Iran. Anne Allison wrote about precarious socialities of Japanese youth. Ken MacLeish posted on the wounds of war and the dilemmas of stereotype. And Olumide Abimbola [...]

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]]> By: Fred http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-626772 Fred Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:01:56 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-626772 I am not familiar with the UN convention on asylum, but one thing that struck me is that often those most in need of asylum are most often those unable to take any such action that would ensure asylum, even if there is a host country willing to accept them. I am thinking of situations like Darfur, but even the Maldives, which may soon be under water (also many other Micornesian nations, as well). We may be making too many assumptions about what people are able to do from what we wouild ideally like them to do. While we consider migration as a major force in the future, the question remains how many would like to migrate but cannot, and how many even refuse. For many indigenous peoples migration is not an option (not because they can't), but because they won't give up what has been their land for thousands of years. I am not familiar with the UN convention on asylum, but one thing that struck me is that often those most in need of asylum are most often those unable to take any such action that would ensure asylum, even if there is a host country willing to accept them. I am thinking of situations like Darfur, but even the Maldives, which may soon be under water (also many other Micornesian nations, as well).

We may be making too many assumptions about what people are able to do from what we wouild ideally like them to do. While we consider migration as a major force in the future, the question remains how many would like to migrate but cannot, and how many even refuse. For many indigenous peoples migration is not an option (not because they can’t), but because they won’t give up what has been their land for thousands of years.

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]]> By: John McCreery http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-626771 John McCreery Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:47:41 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-626771 We are on the same page. I, too, do not think that a declining population in an affluent country is necessarily a bad thing. As someone who has reached the age of 65, with a paid-off mortgage and national health insurance, the thought of Japan becoming an Asian Switzerland has long been a pleasant fantasy. What bothers me is the thought that national governments will, of course, care most about their own citizens. This will be particularly true of democratic governments that have to keep voters happy enough to keep them in office. We have just seen one likely effect in Copenhagen. Last weekend I was at a conference on the subject of "The Right to Move." The issue was immigration. I learned a couple of things that set me to thinking. First, the UN Convention on Human Rights asserts the right of asylum; but that right is defined with reference to political persecution, allowing countries to refuse asylum to "economic immigrants." The rights of those displaced by natural disasters are undefined. Furthermore, as a prominent philosopher from Harvard pointed out, even the right of asylum itself is only a "liberty right." Like the right to marry, for which you need someone willing to marry you, its implementation depends on finding someone who is willing to grant asylum. At the same conference I heard a sociologist talking about the difficulties that Chinese immigrants pose for the members of the Japanese community where she is doing her research. Not knowing Japanese ways and rapidly forming an enclave of their own, they don't know basic things like how to sort the garbage and are indifferent to efforts to get them to conform. I found myself thinking how my anthropological take would differ depending on which group, the Chinese or the Japanese, I took to be "my" people. At the end of the day,however, it was the melting of the Himalayan glaciers that shook me. I couldn't help thinking how trivial the questions of group identity and properly sorting the garbage in a Japanese neighborhood appeared when contrasted with the life and death issues that already confront billions of people around the world. We are on the same page. I, too, do not think that a declining population in an affluent country is necessarily a bad thing. As someone who has reached the age of 65, with a paid-off mortgage and national health insurance, the thought of Japan becoming an Asian Switzerland has long been a pleasant fantasy. What bothers me is the thought that national governments will, of course, care most about their own citizens. This will be particularly true of democratic governments that have to keep voters happy enough to keep them in office. We have just seen one likely effect in Copenhagen.

Last weekend I was at a conference on the subject of “The Right to Move.” The issue was immigration. I learned a couple of things that set me to thinking. First, the UN Convention on Human Rights asserts the right of asylum; but that right is defined with reference to political persecution, allowing countries to refuse asylum to “economic immigrants.” The rights of those displaced by natural disasters are undefined. Furthermore, as a prominent philosopher from Harvard pointed out, even the right of asylum itself is only a “liberty right.” Like the right to marry, for which you need someone willing to marry you, its implementation depends on finding someone who is willing to grant asylum.

At the same conference I heard a sociologist talking about the difficulties that Chinese immigrants pose for the members of the Japanese community where she is doing her research. Not knowing Japanese ways and rapidly forming an enclave of their own, they don’t know basic things like how to sort the garbage and are indifferent to efforts to get them to conform. I found myself thinking how my anthropological take would differ depending on which group, the Chinese or the Japanese, I took to be “my” people.

At the end of the day,however, it was the melting of the Himalayan glaciers that shook me. I couldn’t help thinking how trivial the questions of group identity and properly sorting the garbage in a Japanese neighborhood appeared when contrasted with the life and death issues that already confront billions of people around the world.

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]]> By: Fred http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-626766 Fred Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:14:30 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-626766 Good point about the effect of shrinking population and de-socalized Eloi and their role in a changing climatic-world. But, first, I don't think a declining population is necessarily a bad thing, nor that it should occur in societies enjoying some of the greatest affluence in world history. I take your point it may for many become an idee fixe, spelled out in many popular books on the doom and gloom of a Spenglerian fashion, and especially coupled with fears of immigrant "invasion". The contrast though is China, where there is an effort to reduce population, maintain a high GDP growth rate, and pursue a nationalist policy that most chinese would consider postive. I suppose the damming of the Yellow River was one attempt to engineer a solution to future climate impacts, something that reminds me of the construction of the Hoover dam in the US. But for locales without the economy to support engineered solutions, the outlook is dire. Comparativley, I don't see Japan's woes as all that great compared to many of the locations you mention. The question arises how can you move a billion people without too much unrest. Good point about the effect of shrinking population and de-socalized Eloi and their role in a changing climatic-world. But, first, I don’t think a declining population is necessarily a bad thing, nor that it should occur in societies enjoying some of the greatest affluence in world history. I take your point it may for many become an idee fixe, spelled out in many popular books on the doom and gloom of a Spenglerian fashion, and especially coupled with fears of immigrant “invasion”.

The contrast though is China, where there is an effort to reduce population, maintain a high GDP growth rate, and pursue a nationalist policy that most chinese would consider postive. I suppose the damming of the Yellow River was one attempt to engineer a solution to future climate impacts, something that reminds me of the construction of the Hoover dam in the US. But for locales without the economy to support engineered solutions, the outlook is dire. Comparativley, I don’t see Japan’s woes as all that great compared to many of the locations you mention. The question arises how can you move a billion people without too much unrest.

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]]> By: John McCreery http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-626750 John McCreery Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:04:59 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-626750 It is easy to blame the financial system. The more fundamental fact, however, is the subzero population growth and aging population. The failure of the base population to reproduce itself is now a given in all of the OECD countries and in other parts of East Asia as well. Taiwan, for example, now has a lower birthrate than Japan. The combination of affluence and aging, shrinking populations is unprecedented in human history. There have been shrinking populations before, e.g., during the Black Death during what was the late Middle Ages in Europe. But the combination of shrinking populations in those parts of the world that enjoy the greatest affluence and the greatest concentrations of advanced technology with still-growing populations in the poverty-stricken Global South is a totally new situation. Add the effects of climate change on impoverished populations and the outlook for the near-term future (fifty years or so) is stark. Already, the Himalayan glaciers are receding. What will happen to the billion or so people whose lives and livelihoods depend on the Ganges, the Bramaputra, and the Mekong, not to mention the Chinese who depend on water from the Yang-Tze, the Yellow River and the other, smaller rivers that flow into China from the Tibetan plateau? How will de-socialized eloi (I borrow H.G. Well's term) in Japan and other "advanced" countries deal with this situation? It is easy to blame the financial system. The more fundamental fact, however, is the subzero population growth and aging population. The failure of the base population to reproduce itself is now a given in all of the OECD countries and in other parts of East Asia as well. Taiwan, for example, now has a lower birthrate than Japan.

The combination of affluence and aging, shrinking populations is unprecedented in human history. There have been shrinking populations before, e.g., during the Black Death during what was the late Middle Ages in Europe. But the combination of shrinking populations in those parts of the world that enjoy the greatest affluence and the greatest concentrations of advanced technology with still-growing populations in the poverty-stricken Global South is a totally new situation.

Add the effects of climate change on impoverished populations and the outlook for the near-term future (fifty years or so) is stark. Already, the Himalayan glaciers are receding. What will happen to the billion or so people whose lives and livelihoods depend on the Ganges, the Bramaputra, and the Mekong, not to mention the Chinese who depend on water from the Yang-Tze, the Yellow River and the other, smaller rivers that flow into China from the Tibetan plateau?

How will de-socialized eloi (I borrow H.G. Well’s term) in Japan and other “advanced” countries deal with this situation?

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]]> By: Fred http://savageminds.org/2009/12/20/precarious-sociality/comment-page-1/#comment-626748 Fred Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:49:38 +0000 http://savageminds.org/?p=2956#comment-626748 The conditions described for modern Japan seem somewhat similar to those of Europe during the early 19th century. Consistent low growth, even long term recession following the napoleonic Wars, a divide between levels of society, a threatened middle and lower middle class always on the verge of slipping into poverty, and a failure by governments to respond except by forceful means. But unlike Japan, European populations continued to grow, undermining an expansion in GDP, and increasing the supply of workers for limited jobs. Is the conditions in Japan symptomatic of chronic condition or a transitional generational event? Japan seems to be in an economic malaise due to its financial system (low interest rates, rentier mentality), so much so that Japan Inc. may be the stumbling block to reform and resolution to the ontological despair felt by the dispossesed younger generation of temp workers. The conditions described for modern Japan seem somewhat similar to those of Europe during the early 19th century. Consistent low growth, even long term recession following the napoleonic Wars, a divide between levels of society, a threatened middle and lower middle class always on the verge of slipping into poverty, and a failure by governments to respond except by forceful means. But unlike Japan, European populations continued to grow, undermining an expansion in GDP, and increasing the supply of workers for limited jobs. Is the conditions in Japan symptomatic of chronic condition or a transitional generational event? Japan seems to be in an economic malaise due to its financial system (low interest rates, rentier mentality), so much so that Japan Inc. may be the stumbling block to reform and resolution to the ontological despair felt by the dispossesed younger generation of temp workers.

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