Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 54 | 2018
Research Article | Theoretical Study of Social Hybridity
Theoretical Study of Social Hybridity
Possibilities for Social Change Theory in the Age of Globalisation
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show the new directions for reconstruction of the concept of society made possible by another concept – that of hybridity. First we shall argue that in the era of globalisation, the conventional view perceiving society as a self-fulfilling entity is no longer valid. Next, we will critically review the spatial and temporal frameworks, which have served as the basis for the concept of society so far, basing our analysis on the recent theories of space and time. We shall then focus on the concept of hybridity, showing that it can serve as a pivot providing us with the clue for reconstruction of society making the latter valid again. Although ‘hybridity’ is a term predominantly used in cultural research, here we shall try to look at it from a sociological perspective. We shall demonstrate that ‘social hybridity’ presents a new way to see society as a complex entity made of various interactions both within and across borders. Lastly, in order to show how this theory can be applied in empirical research, we shall introduce the concept of ‘zones of interactivity’. We will show that the ‘social hybridity’ approach built around a core of the ‘zone’ concept makes it possible to resurrect ‘society’ helping us to see the present social change from a completely new perspective.
Submitted: Jan. 16, 2018 | Accepted: March 17, 2018 | Published June 25, 2018 | Language: en
Keywords Zone • Social hybridity • Society • Globalisation • Space • Social change • Time
Copyright © 2018 Hirofumi Utsumi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2018/01/017
