The objective of this research is to reconsider modern social concepts from the standpoint of European anthropology, so as to search for new social concepts to analyze our globalized contemporary world.

European civil society has emphasized the self-reliant individual, but in actual society there are many individuals who have been separate from the scope of the citizenry. The question is how European anthropologists try to portray such societies. This research will concentrate on such key concepts as community, association and individual/citizen, and will investigate basic concepts repositioning them within European social contexts. Through this research we will seek to create an image of contemporary global society.

As far as European anthropological approaches are concerned, this research intends to focus on the following three points. First, the question is how the basic concepts of modern social science have actually been applied in reappraisals of the repositioning within local European contexts. Second, we are interested in how actual human behavior and phenomena are reflected in ethnographic descriptions. Third, we will examine perspectives on issues in European society as evidenced in information found in research compiled on the non-Western world.