Synopsis
This volume, the first major study in its field, offers an invaluable stepping-stone to a more informed understanding of the fundamental social changes taking place in Asia – defined as ‘a reconstruction of the intimate and public spheres’. Such changes are being observed worldwide, but previous studies relating to this phenomenon are largely based on Western experiences dating back to the 1970s. Developments in Asia, however, are manifesting both similarities and differences between the two regions.
The book’s strongest appeal, therefore, lies in its theoretical orientation, seeking to define frameworks that are most relevant to the Asian reality. These frameworks include compressed and semi-compressed modernity, familialism, familialization policy, unsustainable society, the second demographic dividend, care diamonds, and the transnational public sphere. Such concepts are seen as essential in any discussion concerning the intimate and public spheres of contemporary Asia. Accordingly, Transformation of the Intimate and the Public in Asian Modernity can be seen as a valuable text as well as a work of reference and will be welcomed by social scientists and cultural anthropologists alike.
The book comprises an in-depth introduction and ten chapters contributed by scholars from Japan, Korea, Thailand and Canada covering topics ranging from low fertility, changing life course, increasing non-regular employment, care provision, migrant workers, social policies, and family law, to the activities of transnational NGOs, with a special focus on distinctive features of Asian experiences.
About the Author
Ochiai Emiko is Professor of Sociology at Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters. Her focus is placing changes in intimate relationships in the broader context of welfare state reconstruction and globalization. Her publications include Asia’s New Mothers: Crafting Gender Roles and Childcare Networks in East and Southeast Asian Societies (Global Oriental, 2008), Stem Family in a Eurasian Perspective (Peter Lang, 2006), and Japanese Family System in Transition (LTCB International Library, 1997).
Hosoya Leo Aoi is a lecturer at the Centre for Global Human Resource Development, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan. She received a PhD in archaeobotany from the University of Cambridge in 2002. Her research interests include prehistoric rice agriculture in Japan and China and ethnographic studies of traditional farming, food and foodways in Oceania. Her publications include "Understanding the Formation of Agricultural Society in Prehistoric Western Japan" (Journal of World Prehistory, Vol. 27 (2014)), and "Staple or Famine Food?" (Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Vol. 3.1 (2011)).
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