Reluctant Intimacies: Japanese Eldercare in Indonesian Hands / Edition 1

by Beata Switek

Overview

Based on seventeen months of ethnographic research among Indonesian eldercare workers in Japan and Indonesia, this book is the first ethnography to research Indonesian care workers’ relationships with the cared-for elderly, their Japanese colleagues, and their employers. Through the notion of intimacy, the book brings together sociological and anthropological scholarship on the body, migration, demographic change, and eldercare in a vivid account of societal transformation. Placed against the background of mass media representations, the Indonesian workers’ experiences serve as a basis for discussion of the role of bodily experience in shaping the image of a national “other” in Japan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785332692
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Beata Świtek, PhD, University College London, is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Note on Language
List of Abbreviations

Map 1. Distribution of Indonesian caregiver candidates who arrived in Japan in 2008
Map 2. Distribution of Indonesian caregiver and nurse candidates who arrived in Japan in 2008

Introduction

Chapter 1. Imagining Life and Work in Japan
Chapter 2. Working Intimacies
Chapter 3. Intimate Management
Chapter 4. National Predicaments

Conclusion: Reluctant Intimacies

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

“This study is based on in-depth research involving a good analysis of the articulation of national identities, sense of belonging and local labour markets with the social and bodily intimacies related to care for the elderly in Japanese institutions… It is an essential contribution to the understanding of the cultural, personal and social relations in care work.” · Ratna Saptari, Leiden University

“Świtek’s study is a significant contribution to studies of migration in relation to national imaginations, as well as to the analysis of carework in a changing global context. The book provides both rich ethnographic detail and insightful generalizations and is a compelling analysis of how cultural and racial ideologies find expression in the mundane interactions of everyday life. The author’s linguistic fluency and reflections on her positionality also enhance the study immensely. This book is a real gem.” · David L. McConnell, The College of Wooster

From the Publisher