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Avenell's "Citizen"

Avenell's "Citizen" Avenell’s “Citizen” J. Victor Koschmann Simon Avenell’s contribution to an intellectual and political history of the “citizen” (shimin) in postwar Japan reopens an issue that has not received much attention since the “citizens’ movements” of the 1960s and 1970s faded from public memory in the 1990s. Although problematical in some ways, when combined with another of Avenell’s recent articles, it contributes importantly to the much-needed reassessment of postwar citizenship and protest in light of neoliberal ideology. At first reading, the essay seems to be aimed primarily at debunking the aura of democracy that surrounds postwar citizen movements by highlighting supposedly particularistic, including nationalistic, dimensions of their ideology. Avenell begins by recalling a moment around 1960, when political scientist Takabatake Michitoshi, philosopher Kuno Osamu, and others hailed the formation of a new “civic consciousness” among Japanese citizens doi 10.1215/10679847-2008-021 Copyright 2008 by Duke University Press pos163_12_Koschmann.indd 753 (shimin) who were showing themselves to be willing and able to stand up to the state. This new, positive concept of the citizen contrasted against the prewar, Marxist notion of the citizen as the “signifier of everything petit bourgeois and self-interested.” However, he then cautions against following Takabatake and Kuno in hailing http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Avenell's "Citizen"

Koschmann, J. Victor
positions asia critique , Volume 16 (3) – Dec 1, 2008
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References (9)

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2008 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1067-9847
DOI
10.1215/10679847-2008-021
Publisher site
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Abstract

Avenell’s “Citizen” J. Victor Koschmann Simon Avenell’s contribution to an intellectual and political history of the “citizen” (shimin) in postwar Japan reopens an issue that has not received much attention since the “citizens’ movements” of the 1960s and 1970s faded from public memory in the 1990s. Although problematical in some ways, when combined with another of Avenell’s recent articles, it contributes importantly to the much-needed reassessment of postwar citizenship and protest in light of neoliberal ideology. At first reading, the essay seems to be aimed primarily at debunking the aura of democracy that surrounds postwar citizen movements by highlighting supposedly particularistic, including nationalistic, dimensions of their ideology. Avenell begins by recalling a moment around 1960, when political scientist Takabatake Michitoshi, philosopher Kuno Osamu, and others hailed the formation of a new “civic consciousness” among Japanese citizens doi 10.1215/10679847-2008-021 Copyright 2008 by Duke University Press pos163_12_Koschmann.indd 753 (shimin) who were showing themselves to be willing and able to stand up to the state. This new, positive concept of the citizen contrasted against the prewar, Marxist notion of the citizen as the “signifier of everything petit bourgeois and self-interested.” However, he then cautions against following Takabatake and Kuno in hailing

Journal

positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Dec 1, 2008

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