Dr. Tobias Weiß
Contact
Biographical Note
Research Interests
Publications
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Contact
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Biographical Note
Tobias Weiss studied Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies and Economics at the Universities of Hamburg and Fukui. He finished his PhD thesis on journalism and the reporting on nuclear power in Japanese media at the University of Zurich in 2018. After research stays at the German Institute of Japanese Studies (2015), Harvard University (2016) and Waseda University (2017, 2019-2020) he became assistant professor (akademischer Mitarbeiter) at Heidelberg University in 2020.
Research Interests
In his first book (Nomos, 2019, in German) he explores the reasons for the favorable portrayal of nuclear power in Japanese media as compared to Germany. He traces how political groups worked to spread their preferred framing of nuclear power in the media and how these efforts were successful to different degrees in different media organizations. The combination of frame analysis, historical analysis and interviews allows for an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms aimed at influencing media reporting by the nuclear industry in Japan as well as their limits. Based on this research, he published English-language articles in Poetics, Journal of Civil Society and Contemporary Japan.
Weiss’ research is based on the field-theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu. It aims at analyzing the historical genesis of social movements, as well as institutions connecting these historical legacies to the present. Weiss has conducted research on civil society and political groups advocating for and against the use of nuclear power in Japan. He has published articles in the Journal of Civil Society and Social Science Japan Journal looking at the role of conservative and state-sponsored movements in the structuring of Japan’s civil society.
He is also interested in Japanese political culture and in this context has conducted research on the reception of Max Weber in Japan and the resulting analyses of political culture by Maruyama Masao and the modernist school of Political Science in Japan. An article on this topic was published in Asiatische Studien.
Publications
Monographs
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(2019) Auf der Jagd nach der Sonne. Das journalistische Feld und die Atomkraft in Japan. Serie Politische Soziologie (Hrsg. Hauke Brunkhorst, Andrew Arato und Regina Kreide). Baden-Baden: Nomos
https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845296975 |
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Review by Fabian Schäfer in Social Science Japan Journal 24 (1): 213-216.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa034 |
Articles (peer-reviewed)
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(2021) Elements of Max Weber's model of rationalization in the political analysis of Maruyama Masao. Asiatische Studien 75.2.
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(2021, with Kei'ichi Satō) Vertical and horizontal networks revisited: exploring their effects on attitudes and advocacy towards nuclear energy. Social Science Japan Journal 24 (1): 85-113.
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(2020) Uniformity or Polarization? The Nuclear Power Debate in Japanese Newspapers and Political Coalitions 1973-2014. Contemporary Japan 33 (1): 57-122
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(2020) Journalistic Autonomy and Frame Sponsoring. Explaining Japan’s “Nuclear Blind Spot” with Field Theory. Poetics 80: 1-16
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(2019) Japan’s ‘Pro-Nuclear Civil Society’: Power in the Analysis of Social Capital and Civil Society. Journal of Civil Society 15 (4), S. 326–352.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2019.1668631 |
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(2015) Die japanischen Medien und die Atomkatastrophe von Fukushima. Chiavacci, David; Wieczorek, Iris (Hrsg.) Japan 2014. München: Iudicium: 245-269
http://vsjf.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/jjb_2014_11_weisz.pdf  |
Book Chapters (peer-reviewed)
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(2020) The Campaign for Nuclear Power in Japan before and after 2011: Between State, Market and Civil Society. Chiavacci, David; Grano, Simona; Obinger, Julia (Hrsg.) Civil Society and the State in Democratic East Asia: Between Entanglement and Contention in Post High Growth. Amsterdam University Press: Protest and Social Movements series https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12sdvjk.6 |
Other Relevant Publications (Reviews, Interviews etc.)
(2020) Interview: Japans Premier Abe Shinzo hat Kritiker entmachtet. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung 213, 14.9.2020: 11.
(2016, mit Yasmine Berriane) Report: Constitutions under Debate.Asia & Europe Bulletin 5 (March 2016): 10-11.
(2015) Naoto Kan über die Ereignisse am 11. März 2011. DIJ Newsletter 52, Oktober 2015 (verfügbar unter:
DIJ-NL52_deutsch.pdf
(2014) Nationalism, Nuclear Power and Japan’s Fragile Media Opposition. East Asia Forum verfügbar unter:
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/10/01/nationalism-nuclear-power-and-japans-fragile-media-opposition/
(2013) Wie geht es weiter mit der japanischen Atompolitik?Insight Asia Pacific 3/2013: 16-17 verfügbar unter:
http://www.asienundeuropa.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:ffffffff-c926-6cc9-ffff-fffff6c3f9dc/insideasiapacificweiss.pdf
(2013) Rezension von Richter, Steffi; Gebhardt, Lisette (2012, Hrsg.). Japan nach „Fukushima“. Ein System in der Krise. Asiatische Studien 67 (2): 345-352.
