First course essay assignment
In these opening weeks, we have three “ethnographic” portraits of Japanese corporate workplaces of the late 20th century: Jeannie Lo’s study of office ladies and factory women at Brother Industries, Thomas Rohlen’s study of the men of Ueda Bank, and the BBC documentary on “being [corporate] Japanese” at Fuji Film Company. As I have discussed in class, analyzing social life involves using concepts, connections, and comparison to make sense of your observations, interviews, and encounters.
This first assignment asks you to identify a topic that strikes you as important about these three corporate workplaces–something like gender relations, career patterns, the nature of competition, the daily routine, the connections of work, marriage, and family, etc. Compose an essay of about 600-700 words that analyzes this issue by applying a concept, putting the topic in context, and discussing it comparatively (across the three cases).
This essay is due on Friday, September 25, at 4:30 p.m.