We Are Creating a Book | Tomoki Kamo, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management
December 8, 2021
We are creating a book that explores the current state of policy management studies.
The Faculty of Policy Management was established in 1990, about thirty years ago. The previous year, the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the international order of the East-West Cold War, had fallen. It was an event that made us recognize anew the simple fact that order is fluid. It can be said that it was an exhilarating time, a mixture of hope and anxiety for the future.
Of course, the source of this "exhilaration" must have been different for each individual. At the time, I was a student at Keio Senior High School, and I was more shaken by the events in Beijing that same year than by the developments in Europe. Having been captivated by the sheer breadth of Chinese history, I was struck by the reality of Chinese politics. The year 1989 was the catalyst for me to think about China, which was beginning to move toward an uncertain future, and about Japan's future in facing such a China.
Confronting a constantly shifting order, we consider policies to address the various problems posed by a future where conventional ways of thinking and values may no longer apply. We think about what the problems are, question whether they are the real problems, investigate their causes, and consider what can be done. For the past thirty years, the Faculty of Policy Management has been contemplating policy through a dialogue between practical and theoretical knowledge in order to think about the future.
The cutting edge, presented based on the practice of policy management studies in the 1990s, was the four-volume series " The Forefront of Policy Management Studies " (Keio University Press, 2003). This was followed by " Policy Management: Methods and Practices for Problem Finding and Solving " (Keio University Press, 2006), and five volumes of research findings have been published as the "SFC Policy Management Series." Before reaching the point of disseminating these results, policy management studies had been building up discussions since around 2000 through the *KEIO SFC REVIEW* and working papers on policy management.
The book project we have now started focuses on what lies beyond the "cutting edge" presented twenty years ago. To do so, we will examine the current state of policy management studies. By questioning the present, we can question what lies further ahead. What have we inherited, and what have we developed? The latest issue of the *KEIO SFC JOURNAL* features a special section titled " Old and New Policy Management Studies ."
We who were students thirty years ago believe that through education and research at SFC, we have acquired the means to respond to the world of today, thirty years later. Through the book project we are now undertaking, we will discuss what we will present to international students from the future, thirty years from now. By doing so, we can affirm what challenges we at SFC will take on.
This book project began on November 1 by calling not only on faculty members belonging to the Faculty of Policy Management, but also faculty members from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Graduate School of Media and Governance, and even faculty from the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care and the Graduate School of Health Management. We launched an editorial committee with Professor Takeo Kuwabara of the Faculty of Policy Management, Associate Professor Masahiro Kotosaka, Professor Yuichiro Shimizu, Professor Ken Jimbo, Professor Fumio Shimpo, Professor Yoko Hirose, Professor Hajime Miyagaki, Associate Professor Yasutake Miyashiro, Senior Assistant Professor Kaoru Yamamoto, and Professor Ryuma Wada. From now on (as of December 1), this book series will be compiled by a total of sixty-seven faculty members into five volumes. The book series will consist of "Global Governance and Policy Management," "Language, Culture, and Policy," "Methods and Evaluation of Social Innovation," "The Current State of Policy Processes and Legal Systems," and "Methodological Developments in Policy Management Studies" (all are working titles).
Heading into the spring of 2023, SFC will be filled with a sense of exhilaration.