Dissertation by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
ProQuest, 2014
This dissertation examines how adolescent pop culture fans seeking “imaginary solutions” for adul... more This dissertation examines how adolescent pop culture fans seeking “imaginary solutions” for adulthood interact with the structural processes of vocational education and a globalized pop culture production industry job market. A qualitative study of students enrolled as animation and manga majors at two Japanese vocational schools in Tokyo, Japan based on qualitative fieldwork, interviews and surveys of students and staff, and internal school data explores the following issues. 1) How explicit vocational training and implicit socialization at vocational schools transform pop culture consumers into skilled workers in the pop culture industry. As youth are transformed during the school-to-work process, they also impact the practices of both schools and production employers. 2) How Japan’s non-university post-secondary educational sector is shaped by market pressures to entice enrollment and informal hiring agreements with industry employers. Targeting young pop culture fans to enroll in two-year vocational programs produces an influx of socially awkward and introverted students who must be re-socialized to meet workplace communications and social interaction expectations. 3) How industry professionals hired as contract lecturers provide legitimacy for schools with students and employers, while as master craftsmen and role models they train students to meet employers’ standards for skilled workers. 4) How the push to meet global market demands for Japanese pop culture products is transforming the Japanese domestic industry into a two-tiered global job model, with consequences for youth who train for the lower tier of skilled working class jobs in terms of social status, quality of life, and job mobility.
Master's Thesis by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
ProQuest/UMI, Dec 2008
Hikikomori, coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, describes a trend of Japanese youth, prima... more Hikikomori, coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, describes a trend of Japanese youth, primarily male, who shut out contact with society by hiding within their parents' homes for months or years at a time. In the process, these hermits become truants and school refusals, failing out of school and work through their long periods of seclusion. Further, reentry into society as middle-class adults is difficult for those with a history of acute social withdrawal. This study examines Takeyama, a private rehabilitation institution for hikikomori in Tokyo, Japan. Over the three years of Takeyama's rehabilitation program, hikikomori youth are exposed to daily social rehabilitation structured around an idealized norm of conduct through group participation, routinization, and repetition. The process of hikikomori rehabilitation at Takeyama also takes on the dimensions of gender and class socialization: the normalization of hikikomori youth with middle class backgrounds into a viable adult gendered working class identity.
Conference Presentations by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
The label of Hikikomori, coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, describes an increasing trend... more The label of Hikikomori, coined by Tokyo Psychologist Saito Tamaki, describes an increasing trend of Japanese youth, primarily male, who shut out contact with society by hiding within their parents’ homes for months or even years at a time. In the process, these youth become truants, failing out of school and work through their long absences from the outside world. Reentry into society in middle class adult roles proves a difficult barrier for recovered hikikomori due to institutional features of Japanese society. This paper examines Takeyama, a private rehabilitation institution for hikikomori located in Tokyo Japan. Over the three year span of Takeyama’s rehabilitation program, Middle-class hikikomori youth from middle-class backgrounds are exposed to daily social rehabilitation structured around an idealized norm of conduct through group participation, routinization, and repetition. My central research question for this paper examines how the process of hikikomori rehabilitation observed at Takeyama involves gender and class socialization. Namely, the normalization of male hikikomori youth with middle class backgrounds into a viable adult masculine identity that is entwined with a working class future.
Semester Papers by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
towakudai.blogs.com, May 2003
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Dissertation by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
Master's Thesis by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
Conference Presentations by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.
Semester Papers by Michael Dziesinski, Ph.D.