著者

KUMAGAI Keichi YOSHIDA Yoko

出版者

The Association of Japanese Geographers

雑誌

Geographical review of Japan series B (ISSN:18834396)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.89, no.1, pp.1-3, 2017-01-31 (Released:2017-01-31)

参考文献数

13

著者

YOSHIDA Yoko

出版者

The Association of Japanese Geographers

雑誌

Geographical review of Japan series B (ISSN:18834396)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.89, no.1, pp.4-13, 2017-01-31 (Released:2017-01-31)

参考文献数

51

被引用文献数

1 1

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This article tries to advance the discussion of the efficacy of qualitative methods often used in the geography of gender in Japan, in particular by focusing on narratives obtained through interview surveys and analyzed using discourse analysis. It can be said that around the year 2000 was a turning point in Japanese geography for research methods such as life-history research. The life-history research made it possible to hear the voices of subjects who have been placed in minority positions and have not been able to easily speak and to deepen the study of geography from various standpoints and to include the perspectives of minorities. Analyzing narratives in informants’ life histories encouraged geographers to clarify the structures of space/place by focusing on gender relations acted out as power. The studies which adopted the life-history research could be positioned with the field of gender studies in geography, as all of them reveal the social relations in local communities and of groups within particular spaces—which is to say that they demonstrate the gender relations preserved by the patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity. With geography, it has become possible to point out issues that are found only “here” and cannot easily be generalized by questioning “where,” including micro-scale spaces that cannot be mapped or visualized. This can be called “local knowledge” that is generated from the perspective of a “somewhere” that is rooted in people’s lives, as proposed by McDowell (1993).

著者

YOSHIDA Yoko MURATA Yohei KAGEYAMA Honami

出版者

The Association of Japanese Geographers

雑誌

Geographical review of Japan series B (ISSN:18834396)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.86, no.1, pp.33-39, 2013-07-30 (Released:2013-07-31)

参考文献数

43

被引用文献数

3 3

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The debate over gender emerged in the field of geography in Japan around 1990, and geographers began conducting case studies in the late 1990s. However, it cannot be denied that the geography of gender is a minority field in Japan. This paper attempts to explore how the geography of gender in Japan can be developed in the future. While the concept of gender is gradually becoming more common in geography, there is a fairly common tendency to reduce the concept of gender to an “extraction of gender differences” and regard it as an issue only for women. It is not insignificant to map gender differences and tackle the issues of women’s spaces. They are suited to ascertaining spaces from macro- or meso-scales. The issue is whether such research studies (and researchers) are aware of the positional relationship between the research subjects and themselves. This is because by highlighting the current spatial issues of gender while adopting a reflective perspective on power relations and researchers’ own gender relations, stances aimed at resolving various types of discrimination can be discussed. Furthermore, there are some reservations around thinking of the issues of gender independently. Within Japanese human geography, many “geographies” currently exist for each research subject. In order to clarify the structure of inequality and the oppression borne from intersecting several axes of distinction, including gender, it is necessary for segmented “geographies” to have a theoretical framework common to all its foundations. For the geography of gender, it is not always necessary to look at a research subject from a neutral standpoint. This is because research studies that view gender as an issue cannot help but focus on the power relations. A critical stance is being sought.