Power, social discipline and the control of urban space: a case study in Moji, western Japan, 1890-1930

This paper attempts to demonstrate the relationship between space and reproduction of labor power in a modern Japanese city. Socially-produced space is an essential component to the operation of 'power', and in particular 'social discipline' that plays a central role in producing labor power with a certain quality. It deals with three aspects of reproduction of labor power in connection with social policy of the municipal authorities: feeding, disciplining and classifying people. Though these aspects are interrelated with each other, it is possible to distinguish two types of the operation of power concerning social reproduction; 'confinement' and 'self-regulation'. Through these operations of power the municipal authorities made a surveillance and controlled the actions and practices of people. The operation of power is not one-way oppression, but a dialectical relationship between the municipal authorities and people in the context of every day social and spatial practices.