An Empirical Study on Networking of Middle-aged People in Urban Society

Research Project

Project/Area Number	07610193
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	Tohoku Gakuin University
Principal Investigator	TAKEUCHI Akihiro Tohoku Gakuin University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (20125602)
Project Period (FY)	1995 – 1996
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1996)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000) Fiscal Year 1996: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Keywords	networking / discourse analysis / men's cooking / sociology of food and eating / 中高年男性 / 余暇活動 / 男の料理言説 / ジンダー / ネットワーク / 中高年層 / 第一次的社会関係 / 料理 / 都市 / 男性
Research Abstract	This report deals with networking of middle-aged men in Japanese urban society. An object of the case study is "Danshi chuubou ni hairou kai" ("Men! Let's enjoy cooking" club), a men's group of"Cooking and Food Culture". I examine the social background of the birth of the club and the growth on the historical changes of diet life in the decades of rapid economic growth since the mid-1950s. I examine the discourse of "Men's cooking" by cookery books for men, to explore the meaning people attach to it. I research into a foundation of this men's club and the networking of the members. The habits of food and eating drastically has changed in the era. While many people have increasingly depended on the food and food-service industry proliferated, some have sought out home-made foods and 'natural' foodstuffs. So far, it has been a discourse that the kitchen at home is off limits to men. It not only means practically wholly in the recent past and partly in the present that cooking is women's business but that even expressing an interest in food and cooking is not somehow appropriate for men. Some men have dared to appeal counter-discourse that "Men! Let's cook" around the mid- 1970s. They organized the men's cooking club for an enjoyable hobby. Their activities have diffused into some rocal cities such as Sendai, Sapporo, Morioka, Akita, Ichinoseki and Matsumoto and so forth and has fostered the networking , among the people involved beyond social divisions of occupations and regions. The networking is gendered, which mirrors the gender differentiation within our society. It crosses age differentiation. The men's cooking club is changing the members from Lthe middle aged to the elderly. Such a networking has taken on a great significance in what men cooking are still minority.