The Japan Sociological Society will celebrate the 100th anniversary in 2024. We have received a congratulatory message from ISA Vice President Bandana Purkayastha below.
Dear Colleagues,
All of us are so happy to learn you are celebrating 100 years of Sociology in Japan. This significant occasion reminds me of a writing by Indian savant and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was writing about intellectual leaders and lives of civilizations in Charitrapuja. He used this analogy: When streams descend from mountains, their energy is visible to everyone, as the waters rush over, around, and with the rock that stand on their way. But these streams join with rivers where they are no longer visible as separate streams, yet their energy continues to propel the life-giving waters of rivers. Mature rivers appear to be relatively placid on the surface, but the energy of all tributary streams contribute to the rivers ability to carve the paths to join oceans. If these energies dissipate or lessen, rivers become moribund. So too with our sociological enterprise, we are working in so many societies, and like the streams, we contribute so many ideas to global and local sociological knowledge to keep alive the dynamism of our shared world of ideas and practice.
Japanese Sociological Society has been contributing the intellectual content, energy, innovations, and methodological rigor to the river and ocean of sociological knowledge for over a hundred years. Thank you!
I offer my congratulations for these celebrations and wish you continued success.
Bandana Purkayastha, PhD.
International Sociological Association: Vice President-National Associations. 2023-2027.
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut. Sociology & Asian and Asian American Studies.
American Sociological Association: 2019 Jessie Bernard (career) award. 2016 Asian American section’s Contributions to the Field (career) award.
Sociologists for Women in Society: President 2013.
