"International Sociology, Migration Studies and Social Movement Studies
I conduct empirical research on the impact of globalization—a phenomenon that challenges the framework of the nation-state—on civil society and social movements. My main fields of study include squatting movements by the homeless people in France, anti-poverty movements in Japan, and self-help groups for migrant women who are survivors of domestic violence."

"In recent years, Japan has also seen the development of various social movements, exemplified by the anti-nuclear power movement. The participants in these movements are sometimes dismissed as “a few strange people who can’t read the room,” but the French sociologist Alain Touraine referred to them as “the prophets of the future.” His idea is that even if their claims are voiced only by a small minority today, they may in fact point to important issues that concern all members of society, and that these activists are the ones who first draw attention to them.　For example, in the era when nuclear power was considered the energy of the future and Astro Boy was seen as a hero, those who argued against nuclear power were treated as “odd people.” But today, few would describe them in that way. Whether the arguments put forward by today’s minority-led social movements will come to be seen as prophetic depends on what we, as researchers, are able to discern from them.
So why not start by taking off the lenses of your own common sense and listening carefully to what these activists are trying to say?"

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MAIL：inabananako@sophia.ac.jp　TEL：03-3238-3567