A Quest for Alternative Sociology

Five years ago, a number of sociology and social work faculty members at Kwansei Gakuin University (Japan) commenced an ambitious program in pursuit of social research that might serve to enhance human well-being. Although the program is still in its early stages, after five years of trial and error investigations involving hundreds of scholars from around the world, this collection of papers provides a progress report to the academic community. At this intermediate stage of research, these authors have achieved some notable research results. The study explicates the conditions essential to alternative sociology by reflecting upon the program to date. Specifically, the authors define an 'intersected domain' through the examination of three sub-domains: alternative social research, alternative society, and alternative sociology.