Dualistic Portfolio Strategies in Japanese Scholarly Publishing: Cultures and Interests in Interaction

Abstract

On the basis of a number of findings from a preliminary interview research, this paper presents and refines an analytical framework for an ethnographic research on the structural transformation of the scholarly publishing in Japan. One of the key concepts in the analytical framework is “dualistic portfolio strategy.” Dualistic portfolio strategy is a sensitizing concept by which we can conceptualize the process in which several types of actors involved in scholarly publishing pursue their own interests deploying symbolic as well as economic capitals and by combining several types of institutional logics. This concept refers both to “strategies of action,” or habitual ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling and acting (Swidler 1986, 2001) and to a more conscious and deliberate action plan aimed at pursuing relatively articulated interests. Inclusion of these two otherwise contrastive meanings in one term is intended to capture the dialectics between human agency and cultural determination. It will be argued that in analyzing institutional changes, we have to take account of the specific social contexts in which di#erent action strategies of individuals are integrated into deliberate action plans. Actors’ interests themselves are often “discovered” (or invented) and articulated in that