Comparing Dynamics of Social Capital in Japan and China

Lunch seminar with Prof. Shinya Ueno and Dr Chunrong Liu

Professor Shinya Ueno from the Center for Policy Studies, Kumamoto University is a noted expert on social capital and local governance in Japan. His presentation will focus on the structural cause of the decline of social capital.

The Impact of Structural Change on Social Capital and Social Network in Rural Japan

In this exploratory study, we examine how social capital and social network are related to the structural change of communities in rural Japan. Governments have been implementing various measures for overcoming population decline and vitalizing local economy. However, centralization to big cities and decreasing population in rural areas never stopped. Our data is based on fieldworks conducted in the wide range of Japan agricultural areas. The findings suggest that the community function and social capital are susceptible to damage by decreasing of residents’ population and networks. We discuss implications for community development activities by resident associations and public policies.

Chunrong Liu is associate professor and executive vice director of the Fudan-European Centre for China Studies. He will address the role of urban community governance in social capital accumulation.

The Politics of Social Capital Accumulation in Urban Shanghai

This presentation sets out to explain the dynamics of community-level social capital accumulation in post-socialist urban Shanghai. I argue that the forms and dynamics of horizontal social ties are not rooted in the civil society sector, historical traditions or a result of rational choice as suggested by conventional wisdoms. Rather, they are a cumulative effect of the state-led urban community governance innovation. While the bureaucratic form of community institution contributes to top-down state control by breeding clientilistic ties, the rise of deliberative institution in community governance becomes an important source of information about the reliability and capabilities of their neighbors, and functions as a salient springboard for collaborative interactions among the residents, thus facilitating social capital accumulation.

All are welcome. Feel free to bring your own lunch.