This study aims to clarify the sociality of the Tokyo City District Social Worker System(Homen-iin seido)in prewar Japan. Japanese District Social Worker System started in the mid-Taisho era based on the Elberfeld system in Germany. In particular, the members of this system were influenced by the Taisho Democracy and recognized the social role that they had to work. For example, they helped improve the lives of many people on low incomes after the Great Kanto Earthquake. However, the nature of the system changed a great deal, and it became conservative as Japan moved to the wartime regime. This study would like to clarify the kind of people the members of the District Social Worker System were when it became a subordinate organization of the wartime government.
This study researched the occupations and social backgrounds of the members of this system. The results indicate that(1)they were not exclusively from the land-owning or house-owning classes - some of them were also part of self-employed classes and(2)many of them had served as officers of neighborhood associations and belonged to various local organizations, such as youth groups, veteransʼassociations, and were also serving as members of ward councils. This indicates that they were recognized both by the public and themselves as members of a subordinate
organization of the administration. Although the District Social Worker System was initially expected to be significantly committed to social problem, it was a system that contained a politically conservative structure. The actual picture that emerges from the occupations and social backgrounds of the members of the Tokyo City District Social Worker shows that the organization was not robust in terms of its social engagement and lacked autonomy, and as it was based on city councils, it turned into a system that played a part as a marginal organization when the government switched to a wartime regime.
雑誌名
放送大学研究年報
巻
39
ページ
7 - 24
発行年
2022-03-25
出版者
放送大学
ISSN
0911-4505
書誌レコードID
AN10019636
放送大学機関リポジトリとは
放送大学機関リポジトリ(The Open University of Japan Repository)では、放送大学で生産された学術成果を収集・蓄積し、広く公開しています。