this paper draws on data obtained through fieldwork with first-generation russian female migrants and an online survey of male and female russian-speaking migrants who reside in Japan. the research focuses on the migrants' material culture, in particular the objects that result from their 'do-it-yourself' (dIy) practices. I expand the traditional definition of dIy: for example, I extend the definition to include items modified to meet their owners' needs, thereby retaining the features of co-making, as well as items obtained outside the conventional consumer experience. uprooted from their familiar socio-cultural environment characterised by specific forms of material expression, migrants use dIy as a tool to restore this materiality in their new location, while having to rely on limited materials and specific consumption channels. In the study, these practices are approached through the concept of bricolage, which originates from lévi-Strauss's anthropological writings, to reveal the meanings enacted through the objects that the migrants possess. K e y w o r d s: material culture, russian-speaking migrants, bricolage, 'do-it-yourself' (dIy). t o c i t e: golovina K., 'material culture and Bricolage: russian-Speaking migrants in Japan Who make and procure objects',
This paper draws its data from fieldwork on female Russian migrants in Japan, paying close attention to their material practices and, notably, their craftwork. The discussion focuses on the objects and clothes observed in localities where these material practices are enacted, namely, migrants' homes and places where migrant festive events take place. Secondhand shops are discussed in detail as a popular shopping destination among Russian migrants. This paper also looks at online groups for Russian-speaking migrants in Japan that serve as sites for the display and exchange of their material possessions. In these offline and online spaces, migrants search for ways to affectively reenact the materiality and accompanying sensations of their pre-migratory past, while simultaneously interiorizing the material expressions of the host culture. By investigating the connection between migration and materiality through the evocative ethnography approach, this study attempts to explore how the affective turn in social inquiry helps us better capture the multilayeredness of migrant experiences. The processes of procuring, making, and sensing that the migrants are engaged in and the resulting objects function as locales charged with affective forces that enable actors to subdue the displacement they have experienced as a result of migration and try out new meanings and modes of being.
This paper adopts a multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) approach and examines how recent online commercials produced in Japan articulate the discourses pertaining to the trending concept of work-life balance (WLB). Further, the study analyzes the narratives of working mothers in Japan who were asked to watch the selected videos and share their thoughts on WLB. As such, it investigates the effects of the discourses transmitted through commercials on women's perceptions of their identities as workers, partners and mothers. The analysis of the multimodal data made it possible to identify the underlying discourses on WLB and gender roles conveyed through the videos. These hidden discourses were highly complex and generally contradicted the readily manifest messages of the respective commercials. One of the central messages in these discourses was the promotion of an apologetic attitude and empathy through one-time "heroic deeds" done by men for their wives. The study participants' narratives revealed their personal aspirations for a desirable WLB, while simultaneously unveiling how they unconsciously internalized many of the videos' discursive impositions. The study contributes to the application of critical discourse analysis methods and to the discussion on the reconstitution of gender roles, necessary for the implementation of both public and private WLB strategies, in Japan and elsewhere.
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