<論文>愛知の「派遣村」に訪れたある相談者の生活史 : 生活の解体と再組織化の視点から

Abstract

Poverty in Japan has become quite a serious problem in recent years. A large population has lost their jobs and houses. In order to help such people, a so-called village named "Toshikoshi-Hakenmura", which means village for temporary workers to see the old year out, was established in Tokyo in December 2008. It was well known for its social activities to fight poverty issues. However, "Toshikoshi-Hakenmura" did not last for long, and handed its objectives over to a new social activity, simply called "Hakenmura", which then spread all over Japan. Considering contemporary poverty problems, the present paper explores the process of disorganization and reorganization of the social life through interviews in Aichi Prefecture. I conducted in-depth life history interviews with a man who worked as both a consulter and a staff member in the "Hakenmura" planning committee in Aichi Prefecture. From the narrative of the informant, I managed to distinguish four stages in terms of his personality and social capitals. In the first stage, he worked as a "respectable" laborer and lived with his family in Kansai area. In the second stage, he lost his family and started a new life in Aichi Prefecture as a worker in a giant automobile company. In the third stage, he lost his job and house, and experienced "the bottom of his life" as a homeless. In the fourth stage, he encountered "Hakenmura" and attempted to rebuild his life by participating in its activities. The findings show that it is crucial to acquire preliminary social capitals or resources including a certain kind of personality as preconditions for reorganizing one's life. The findings suggest that if one loses his job and/or family, he would be able to rebuild his life not only by seeking new challenges but also using preliminary human and social capitals or resources. One can acquire necessary social capitals through training, and also by meeting various kinds of people before the unexpected disorganization of life would happen. The present study also indicates that our society in the twenty-first century urgently needs to create multiple social systems in order to support people on both formal and informal levels.