Welcome to ‘Imperfect notes on an imperfect world’, an open-ended experiment sharing my writing on this platform. I am a scholar based in Japan, my research and teaching draw on politics, ethics, sociology and related fields. The title hopefully gives a bit of a sense of the perspective you can expect here, a sketch book of thoughts and reflections on our world.
Humans are wonderfully incomplete, constant works in progress. Given this, a world made up of – and made by – people will be similarly incomplete and imperfect. Each of us are constantly trying to find our way, figuring out what to do and what to be, and doing so in conditions and contexts beyond our control. This is what I am trying to think through: what it means to be part of, contribute to, and act in this imperfect world. Certainly, my notes will be imperfect, an unavoidable consequence of the limits, the flaws and incomplete nature of my thinking and knowledge. The wager, however, is that something comes this process of reflection, however imperfect it might be.
When I decided to pursue a scholarly career, my motivations were rather old fashioned, hoping that in some small way through my teaching and research to contribute to the social good. These sentiments remain, but the way that academia tends to work is to channel thinking and writing into a rather specific and narrow direction. Too often academics tend to passively accept that this is how things have to be, and don’t explore or take advantage of some of the other possibilities available. That has been the case for me. With that in mind, I am starting this platform to explore different ways of developing and presenting my work.
The idea is for it to be something like an open notebook, sharing my reflections and research in a more tentative and continuous way. It will likely be composed of a combination of entries: shorter notes, parts of writing from larger projects, and more general reflections. All pictures are taken from ‘Sky patterns’, an ongoing series of images I have been making. The plan is to just to start and see how it evolves. I hope that it might be of interest to you, and that some of the ideas might assist in your own thought processes.
Please consider signing up, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks for reading.
In the meantime, tell your friends!