In 2003, a number of sociology and social work faculty members at Kwansei Gakuin University (Japan) commenced an ambitious program in pursuit of social research that might serve to enhance human well-being. Although the program is still in its early stages, after five years of trial and error investigations involving hundreds of scholars from around the world, this collection of papers provides a progress report to the academic community. At this intermediate stage of research, these authors have achieved some notable research results. The study explicates the conditions essential to alternative sociology by reflecting upon the program to date. Specifically, the authors define an 'intersected domain' through the examination of three sub-domains: alternative social research, alternative society, and alternative sociology.

About Editors and Authors

KOSAKA Kenji

KOSAKA Kenji is Former Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University. He graduated from the Faculty of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, with a major in sociology. After completing an MA at the University of Pittsburgh, he worked as Assistant Professor at Osaka University and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Sociology, Momoyama Gakuin University, before taking up the position of Professor in the Faculty of Sociology and Graduate School of Sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University. His research interests include social stratification.

OGINO Masahiro

OGINO Masahiro is a Japanese sociologist and Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University. His fields of study are cultural sociology, historical sociology and social theory. He graduated from the Department of Sociology at Paul Valery University in 1982 and completed a PhD in Sociology at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Paris 7 in 1988. After serving as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sociology of Kwansei Gakuin University, he became Professor in 2012.