talking about
THE ASIAN STUDIES CENTER UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH WITH SUPPORT FROM THE JAPAN IRON AND STEEL FEDERATION AND MITSUBISHI ENDOWMENTS PRESENTS
asia
talking about
globalization, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORM
THE CASE OF JAPANESE AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES
PATRICIA L.
MACLACHLAN
Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies University of Texas at Austin
KAY SHIMIZU Research Assistant Professor of Political Science University of Pittsburgh
FRIDAY OCTOBER 28 @ 12 PM 4130 POSVAR
Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), the country’s massive— and notoriously conservative—network of farm organisations, is experiencing some surprising changes. Against a backdrop of gradual market openings and severe demographic pressures, a small but growing number of coops at the local level are defying tradition and introducing marketoriented reforms to their governance structures and business strategies. Other coops, however, remain largely unchanged, while JA’s national leadership has struggled hard to preserve the status quo. How can we explain these varying rates of innovation? To answer this question, we propose a model of institutional change that sheds new light on both Japan’s shifting agricultural landscape and the methodologies of institutional analysis.
PATRICIA L. MACLACHLAN is an Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism (Columbia University Press, 2002) and The People’s Post Office: The History and Politics of the Japanese Postal System, 1871-2010 (Harvard University East Asia Center, 2011).
ASIAN
STU DIES CENTER Questions? Email [email protected]
asia
talking about
globalization, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORM
THE CASE OF JAPANESE AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES
PATRICIA L.
MACLACHLAN
Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies University of Texas at Austin
KAY SHIMIZU Research Assistant Professor of Political Science University of Pittsburgh
FRIDAY OCTOBER 28 @ 12 PM 4130 POSVAR
Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA), the country’s massive— and notoriously conservative—network of farm organisations, is experiencing some surprising changes. Against a backdrop of gradual market openings and severe demographic pressures, a small but growing number of coops at the local level are defying tradition and introducing marketoriented reforms to their governance structures and business strategies. Other coops, however, remain largely unchanged, while JA’s national leadership has struggled hard to preserve the status quo. How can we explain these varying rates of innovation? To answer this question, we propose a model of institutional change that sheds new light on both Japan’s shifting agricultural landscape and the methodologies of institutional analysis.
PATRICIA L. MACLACHLAN is an Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism (Columbia University Press, 2002) and The People’s Post Office: The History and Politics of the Japanese Postal System, 1871-2010 (Harvard University East Asia Center, 2011).
ASIAN
STU DIES CENTER Questions? Email [email protected]
