English

Ken Takakusa (he/him)

I’m a sociologist who works as an Assistant Professor at Chiba University, Japan.

I received Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Tokyo in 2020. 


My research interests include social theory, phenomenology, epistemology and methodology of the social sciences, sociology of science, sociology of culture, and media sociology.


My Ph.D. dissertation traced Alfred Schutz’s theoretical development from the 1920s to the 1950s and reconstructed his epistemology of the social sciences. I formulated Schutz’s research interest as “the problem of life (Leben) and scientific knowledge (Erkenntnis)” and argued that he attempted to reveal the relationship between them. 

As a post-doc researcher, I tried to extend the Schutzian scope to various theoretical problems including the problems of value-freedom, relativism, and communication. In 2021, I published a paper about Thomas Luckmann’s proto-sociology.

The current topic of my research is to update the Schutzian phenomenology for constructing a contemporary social theory. I’m increasingly interested in postphenomenology (Ihde, Verbeek), materialist phenomenology (Couldry, Hepp), communicative construction of reality (Knoblauch) and their relevance for the theoretical update in phenomenological social theory. 


Japanese anime culture and its relation to popular music have been another research topic. In Japan, the songs used as theme songs for animation are called “ani-son” and are regarded as an independent genre in the popular music industry. I published some papers on how fans interpret “ani-son” in contemporary Japan. 


In 2023, I published my first book Alfred Schutz and the Epistemology of the Social Sciences: Social Scientific Inquiry in the Making (Japanese), which is based on my dissertation. 

My own book description is available in English at: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biblioplaza/en/A_00225.html


The list of my works is available at: 

https://researchmap.jp/takakusa/?lang=en

https://chiba-u.academia.edu/KenTakakusa


I'm a faculty member of Chiba University, Japan. The website of the department of sociology is: 

http://socio.l.chiba-u.ac.jp/shoukai/kyouin/

(Japanese only)


[For students who want to study under my supervision]