Mission: An Asian and Global Forum on the Reconstruction of Intimate and Public Spheres

      This new journal – Journal of Intimate and Public Spheres (JIPS) – has been born out of a dream of creating a public space to exchange views and knowledge, questioning, imagining, and searching for better relations between Intimate and Public spheres in the globalizing world.
      Rapid and fundamental changes have been taking place in individual and family life in Asia. In East Asian societies, fertility has been declining at an alarming rate. We have also observed changes in marriage; in both the norms and reality of the manner of looking after children and the elderly; and in gender and power structures in the family. Foreign domestic workers/care givers and foreign brides are no longer a rarity in many societies, as just one example. The goal of JIPS is to create an academic and intellectual network within which new approaches to understanding the nature of the transformation behind these tangible trends and phenomena can be explored.
      The Editorial Board would like to propose two basic stances for JIPS. First, we would like to remind our readers that “intimate” lives are inevitably and closely connected with “public”spheres. Our everyday intimate lives have been shaped as a part of society since the beginning of time, but the closeness and interconnectedness between intimate and public spheres takes on a new dimension in the contemporary globalized world. Our editing of JIPS will combine researches of intimate spheres with that of governmental policies, administrative arrangements, market forces, local/community structures, and globalization.
      Second, we would like to focus on the historical uniqueness of Asia, where modernization and movements “beyond modernization” proceed simultaneously. This new phenomenon cannot be understood by the simple application of any currently available theoretical framework. What is happening at present, and what do we need in order to reconstruct human life when various phases of modernization co-exist and are linked with one another? These are the theoretical challenges for our new journal.
      Although our focus is primarily on Asian societies, the scope of JIPS is not limited to the geographical area of Asia, as there are some common features in the process of transformation across the globe, and we believe that knowledge and theories about the experiences of Asian societies will certainly contribute to the understanding of social transformations in other regions.
      JIPS is currently published with financial and editorial support from the Global COE Program at Kyoto University: Reconstruction of Intimate and Public Spheres in 21st Century Asia (Program Leader: Emiko Ochiai).
      We would like to call for contributions and cooperation from all those interested in the Reconstruction of Intimate and Public Spheres of today and tomorrow.

Fumiko Oshikawa, Executive Editor

1. Title: Journal of Intimate and Public Spheres (JIPS)
 
2. Editorial Board:
 (1)    Editorial Board is constituted of the following 10 members including 5 Overseas partners:

 Prof. Chinsung Chung (SNU)
 Prof. Toshiko Himeoka (Univ. of Tokyo)
 Prof. Kimio Ito (Kyoto Univ., GCOE)
 Prof. Ilse Lenz (Ruhr University Bochum)
 Prof. Emiko Ochiai (Kyoto Univ., GCOE)
 Prof. Fumiko Oshikawa (Kyoto Univ., GCOE, Executive Editor)
 Prof. Ito Peng (Toront Univ.)
 Prof. Patricia Uberoi (Univ. of Delhi)
 Prof. Tseng Yen-Fen (TNU)
 Dr. Kaoru Aoyama (Kyoto Univ., GCOE, Assistant Editor)

 (2)    Editorial Board decides (a) basic policy of the journal, (b) contents of each issue, and (c) referees to each manuscript.
 
3. Frequency: normally 2 issues per year from the last half of the 2009 fiscal year onwards
 
4. Each issue contains all or some of the following manuscripts.
 (1)    manuscripts on a particular topic relating to our GCOE program (manuscripts for the special feature of a issue), mainly research papers produced in the course of GCOE activities such as GCOE symposium papers
 (2)    manuscripts contributed
 (3)    book reviews
 (4)    introduction of recently published books
 (5)    news and information relating to relevant academic associations
 
5. Contributions:
 See “Instructions to Contributors”.
 
6. Referees:
 Manuscripts contributed, manuscripts of “special issues”, and manuscripts of “book reviews” will be refereed by two or more knowledgeable scholars appointed by the editorial committee.
 
7. Publication and distribution:
 (1)     JIPS is published by Kyoto University Press (KUP, Kyoto)
 (2)     A part of publications is distributed commercially by KUP
 
8. Editorial office is set up at Kyoto University with Fumiko Oshikawa (the executive editor) and Kaoru Aoyama (assistant editor), both are GCOE members.
 
9. Schedule:
 (1)    Pilot Issue (No.0), mainly consisting of the papers presented at Kick-Off Symposium (November, 2008), was published in March 2010.
 (2)    “Call for papers” and other editorial work of Vol.1 No.1 onwards started in December, 2009.
 (3)    No.1 & 2 will be published in the fiscal year of 2010.