Profiles

Associate Professor AOKI Soko

Affiliations :

  • Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters
  • Division of Department of Integrated Human Sciences
  • Social and Human Sciences Course
  • Department of Sociology

Living with others who have different values

My research focuses on activists who confront environmental issues through social movements. I aim to find out under what conditions thean environmental movement turns into a force of social change. Furthermore, I ask what rewards can be found in dedicating oneself to the movement. I wish to know the necessary conditions for the environmental movement to bring about social change. At the same time, I am trying to understand what kind of rewards activists find for their efforts.
What makes the study of social movements so fascinating?
Today, it is practically common knowledge that the natural environment is valuable and must be protected. But people do not necessarily agree on what it is exactly that they want to protect. Their ideal image of nature may vary. Likewise, they may have different ideas about the parts of the environment that should be prioritized and the steps required for their preservation.
One of the biggest questions for the environmental sociology is how people reconcile disparate priorities and approaches as they address environmental issues. Our inquiry thus reflects a universal human problem: the everlasting never-ending need to overcome differences in values and backgrounds.

  • Research, History
  • Books, papers, etc.
  • Courses
    Sociology (Special Lecture), Sociology (Seminar), Sociology (Introductory Seminar)
    Personal History
    Born Miyagi Prefecture

    Graduated from the College of Social Sciences, the First Cluster of Colleges (currently the School of Social and International Studies), University of Tsukuba
    Completed the master’s program at the Graduate School of Area Studies, University of Tsukuba
    Completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University

    Career:
    Associate Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University
    Current position
    Degree
    Ph.D. (Literature)
    Field
    environmental sociology; social movement theory
    Research Subject
    Development process and effects of social movements
    Comparative research on environmental movements in Japan and Germany
    Keywords
    nuclear facilities; environmental pollution; protest movements; local activism; citizen movements; NPOs and NGOs; volunteering; genesis of the student movement (1968¬¬--69); framing; outsiders; life history methods
    Affiliation
    The Japan Sociological Society; Tohoku Sociological Society; Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology; Japanese Society for German Studies (Japanische Gesellschaft für Deutschstudien)
  • Books
    『ドイツにおける原子力施設反対運動の展開――環境志向型社会へのイニシアティヴ』ミネルヴァ書房,2013年
    『問いからはじめる社会運動論』有斐閣,2020年(濱西栄司・鈴木彩加・中根多恵・小杉亮子との共著)
    Academic Papers
    「ドイツ・ヴァッカースドルフの模索――原子力施設を拒むということ」『ドイツ研究』53: 22-38, 2019
    「原子力施設をめぐる社会運動」, 長谷川公一編『社会運動の現在――市民社会の声』有斐閣, 94-117, 2020
    「公害反対運動の現在――名古屋新幹線公害問題を事例に」『社会学研究』104: 63-89, 2020
    「世代間公正と世代内公正の相克――ドイツ『石炭委員会』の模索」, 丸山康司・西城戸誠編『どうすればエネルギー転換はうまくいくのか』新泉社, 286-308, 2022
    „Umweltbewegung in Japan: Lokaler Widerstand und Unterstützung” , Gemeinsame Herausforderungen: Ein aktueller Blick auf den deutsch-japanischen Wissenschaftsaustausch anhand von Beiträgen aus den Ringvorlesungen 2021 und 2022, AIZAWA Keiichi / Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln (Hrsg.), IUDICIUM Verlag, 292-310, 2023