Message from President
WELCOME TO THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL SOCIETY (ASPOS)
While encountering distinctive progress in science and technology, an outbreak of global warming problems, and rapid growth in globalization - artificial programs of mankind – what we call “Political Society” (John Locke 1698) or civil society – has faced unknown phenomena unlike ever before and has been forced to solve numerous problems. Regarding those problems, not all people, however, are aware that whole academic disciplines are asked to paradigm-shift. Not only natural sciences, but also the humanities and social sciences have been challenged in their significance. Responding to these circumstances, the Association for the Study of Political Society(ASPOS)was established in March 2010. ASPOS aims to be a new type of academic association for problem-solving centered on program-building by analyzing practical problems, while transcending the disciplinary boundaries of politics, economics, jurisprudence, and sociology, and inducing a rich store of knowledge of natural sciences. Also, ASPOS re-examines the state of fusion among natural and social sciences and the humanities, and that of liberal arts, harmonizes necessary ideas, and searches for a resurgence of the humanities and social sciences in order to adopt a new social construction.
In our society, “Political Society” itself has been also facing a paradigm shift. Especially present “Political Society” in Japan, as a whole, came to a deadlock due to an aging society with a low birth rate and an unprecedented financial crisis. Not only politicians, but also citizens possess a clear vision of what Japan should do, and seriously consider program-building for Japan’s “Political Society” from a long term standpoint. Without a clear vision, it is impossible to respond to problems quickly, even in a diplomatic relation. It is evident that academic disciplines are specialized, and, as an inevitable consequence, academic societies and associations are also specified. An inter-disciplinary academic association is therefore inevitably needed to have a multi-dimensional discussion. Not only academics in humanity, social and natural sciences, but also politicians and practitioners are needed to send messages to society based on common ground for program-building.
President: Yoshinobu Araki (Musashino University)