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• 19 (Wed.) and 20(Thurs.) March 2008
• Sophia Univesity, Tokyo
• Program

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The Workshop on Happiness, Welfare and Social Integration

As a part of the research project on the Transition of the Social Network and Formation of the New Scheme of Welfare sponsored by Yokohama National University, we have the Workshop on Happiness, Welfare and Social Integration on February 12-13, 2008 at both the satellite and the main campus of YNU.

Time Schedule and Venue

Tuesday, 12 February
at the Satellite of Yokohama National University
Room 1809, 18th floor of the Landmark Tower
Sakuragicho, Yokohama

10:00-10:20
Opening Remarks
Yasunori Fukagai (YNU)

10:20-12:50
Session 1
Dynamics of the Project of Welfare
Chair: Naoko Soma (YNU)
Speakers: Andreas Varheim (Oslo University College, Norway)
Eisaku Ide (YNU)
Yasunori Fukagai (YNU)
Discussant: Morinao Ijyu (Univerity of Shizuoka, Japan)

14:30-17:00
Session 2
Contemporary Societies in Transition, and Devising the New Scheme of Welfare
Chair: Jyunichi Himeno (Nagasaki University, Japan)
Speakers: John C. Campbell (University of Michigan, USA)
Raymond K. H. Chan (City University of Hong Kong)
Morinao Ijyu (Univerity of Shizuoka, Japan)
Discussant: Naoko Soma (YNU)

Wednesday, 13 February
at the business meeting room, Faculty of Economics Building
Main Campus of YNU

13:00-15:30
Welcome Greetings by the Dean of Economics Faculty, YNU
Professor Taro Akiyama

Session 3
Interpreting Happiness and Welfare for Humanities
Chair: Tetsuo Taka (Kyushu Sangyo University, Japan)
Speakers: Luigino Bruni (University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy)
Toru Yamamori (Doshisha University, Japan)
Daisuke Arie (YNU)
Discussant: T.B.A.

15:50-16:50
Panel for Happiness, Welfare and Social Integration
Chair: Daisuke Arie
John C. Campbell, Andreas Varheim, Luigino Bruni & Yasunori Fukagai

16:50-17:00
Concluding Remarks

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Basic Idea of the Workshop

Since the last two decades of the twentieth century, the typical scheme of welfare has experienced the dramatic change. The change was not only because of the declining and stagnated economic condition of the developed countries and the adverse balance of the finance of these governments. Those issues such as the mobilisation of population from provinces to metropolis in accordance with the high tendency of industrialisation, the change of the attitude among people how and to what extent one allocates the importance to the family for one's own scheme of happiness, and the marked tendency of the depopulation among the developed countries have been affecting to the tasks of government as well as to the general atmosphere of the daily life. So, those issues especially how to transform the typical style of the welfare into new one have been under the high dispute among these countries.

During the high trend of the so-called new liberalism in 1980s, down-sizing or privatisation of the public sectors and producing the minimal state were the common phrase. The issue was not only on the allocation of the sphere of public utility between market and government. As Margaret Thatcher's usage of the phrase of Victorian Values since early 1980s suggests, the critical campaign against the welfare state sometimes implied the negative evaluation of the predominant attitude among ordinal people under the 'umbrella' of institutional and defined scheme of welfare. Since the turn of the century to the twenty-first, however, the new dimension of the issue has been recognised in confronting with the harshness of thoroughgoing application of market mechanism and with the high tide of globalisation. For example, the reluctant attitude to work labelled as Neet, and the low income level without prospects named as working-poor, have been the typical symptoms. These issues are now recognised to be important in this far-east country of Japan as well, and one of the recent widespread phrases here to characterise these social situation is Kakusa Shakai, which means the differentiated society. In general, the various difficulties spread over among the individuals especially how to keep confidence for their own scheme of happiness, how to reformulate the communal network, and how to hold the self respect as humanities, moreover.

As the historical experiences such as British one in 1930s-1940s show, the combination of the theoretical presentation of economic policy for getting riddle of stagnation, and the social policy including egalitarian redistribution, is one of the possible ways. However, under the contemporary situation, we must consider two other issues seriously. Firstly, the high trend of immigration beyond the nations produces the dimensions how people with heterogeneous background could co-exist in some community, and how each society might cultivate the new style of social network and stability under the multi-cultural context. So, the issue of social integration and exclusion has emerged as one of the critical topics after the East-West world regime. Secondly, under the threat of environment problem of the earth, the possible or almost inevitable prospect of the food scarcity in mid twenty-first century may collapse the basis of human welfare. Different from the Neo-Malthusianism around 1960 which fundamentally concerned with the North-South problems, the possible Neo-Neo-Malthusian issue in mid twenty-first century might be the complex one. For example, take the person who has the very sceptical position against the food produced by bio-technology. If it falls into the harsh famine because of the environmental change, one will be confronted with the contradiction either taking such 'dangerous' food or accepting the inevitable death from the extreme dearth of food. This choice implies a kind of ethical judgment under the mixture among technological, environmental and human issues.

Dealing the transition of welfare state in last several decades, this workshop tries to make the approach to the social condition of human well-being under the combination of the institutional, conceptual and social view points.

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Line-up of the Sessions

In order to cover the issues above, this workshop is composed of three sessions below. Those topics of immigration and environment & food scarcity are kept for the future consideration for our research project.

Session 1
Dynamics of the Project of Welfare

During the long twentieth century, the scheme of welfare fluctuated among the formal, institutional style and the voluntary way including both of the market oriented private sector and the friendly group. In many cases, the projects in twentieth century had have the inclination to the style of the former institutional one, but the political argument and the reform programme have been slightly turning into the latter recently. Yasunori Fukagai (Yokohama National University) characterises the dramatic transition or the unstable situation of welfare under the historical perspective of ideas since the idealised pre-modern scheme. Eisaku Ide (Yokohama National University) discusses the critical social transformation under the fiscal deficit which Japan experienced in late 1990s.' Andreas Varheim (Oslo University College, Norway) demonstrates the generalised trust and the universalistic welfare services especially referring to the Nordic model.

Session 2
Contemporary Societies in Transition, and Devising the New Scheme of Welfare

Recent several decades, the fundamental feature of the society including the style of family, community and other institutions experienced the radical or gradual change. Considering the diversity of change among the regions, this session examine the variety of the attempts of new style of welfare. John Campbell (University of Michigan, USA) deals with the reform of the social policy of Japanese government especially on the Kaigo Hoken. Moronao Ijyu (University of Shizuoka, Japan) takes the fiscal reform for social welfare in the case of Sweden. Raymond K. H. Chan (City University of Hong Kong) discusses on the change of the life style especially that of family and the social security mainly in Hong Kong.

Session 3
Interpreting Happiness and Welfare for Humanities

Among the philosophical writings until late nineteenth century, the concept of welfare was utilised in equivalent with the term of well-being. As this fact suggests, the welfare substantially implies those dimensions such as the basic condition and chance for daily life, mutual communication with fellows, self respect in one's way of life, the prospect or the confidence to the future, and the humanity as unity. Luigino Bruni (University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy) discusses on happiness of sociality with paying attention to the contrast between economics and eudaimonia. Toru Yamamori (Doshisha University, Japan) examines the relationship among happiness, basic income and capability. And Daisuke Arie (Yokohama National University) makes the contrast between Aristotelian idea of happiness and Benthamite one.

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Organisers et al and Contact

This workshop is arranged as a part of the research project on the Transition of the Social Network and Formation of the New Scheme of Welfare sponsored by Yokohama National University. It is also prepared under the combination with the research project of the Comparative Study of the Design of Economic Society and Policy Making from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Interwar Period, which is the grant-in aid scientific research (B) supported by Japan Society for Promotion of Science.

The coordinators at Yokohama National University are, Yasunori Fukagai (Professor, the history of economic thought) who is the director for both of the research projects above, Eisaku Ide (Associate Professor, fiscal studies) and Naoko Soma (Associate Professor, policy for social welfare).

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