Solidarity as decentralised coordination: a case of community revival in Japan

This is an exert from a presentation I made at the Yale University Fox International Fellowship Biannual conference in May 2023

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I had the immense pleasure of attending the Yale Fox Fellowship Biannual Reunion & Conference. It was at a stunning location at Yale’s Divinity School, with outdoor activities supported by much welcome warmer springtime weather!

I was invited to speak on a panel discussing ‘decentralised coordination’ – which to me (this probably won’t be a surprise) is something fostered through authentic human-to-human connections. In essence, the better people connect and understand each other, the less centralised ‘coordination’ of a community needs to be.

In this presentation, I spoke about a case in rural Japan suggesting solidarity at the heart of community revival – against extreme adversity. To do this, I combined disciplinary views across History, Cultural Sociology, and Cultural Psychology. Increasingly, I am coming to believe that group and interpersonal levels of connection and understanding go hand-in-hand – that is, solidarity and empathy – especially when there are significant social and/or cultural differences between people.

The wonderful 2022-23 cohort of ‘Fox Fellows’ at Yale University!