This book introduces the work of Yoshihiko Uchida (1913¿1989), one of the most prominent Japanese thinkers on the topic of civil society in the post-World War II era. The distinctive features of Uchidäs approach to civil society are his view of the metabolic relationship between human beings and nature and his call for a social science rooted in the experiences and inquiries of ordinary citizens. This original approach did not develop in a straight line from Uchidäs early work to his mature period, and this book follows the twists and turns in its formation through his reflections on the relationships between ¿the civil¿ and ¿the capitalistic,¿