ABSTRACT
The promotion of self-improvement that was individuated rather than individualistic in Meiji Japan occurred in the context of maintenance of interdependence and harmony in relationships. Institutional reorganization becomes an instrument of social change as more and more individuals and groups come under the sway of the new institutions and adopt new modes of knowledge, the new ethical models, and the newly desired economic and social investment "practices". This chapter elaborates the notion of material and nonmaterial infrastructures, and recalls the frequent observation that the modern industrial system created in the last century in Europe and North America was not merely a technology of modern production. It then discusses the formulation of social transitions, highlighting both the strategies that sponsor and promote change and the strategies that lower the resistance to social change as exemplified by the conversion of Japan into an industrial society in the last century.
