Transformation of the Intimate and the Public in Asian Modernity

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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.

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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).
Preface ... ix
List of Figures ... xi
List of Tables ... xv

Introduction: Reconstruction of Intimate and Public Spheres in Asian Modernity ... 1
OCHIAI Emiko

1 Individualization without Individualism: Compressed Modernity and Obfuscated Family Crisis in East Asia ... 37
CHANG Kyung-Sup

2 Unsustainable Societies: Low Fertility and Familialism in East Asia’s Compressed and Semi-compressed Modernities ... 63
OCHIAI Emiko

3 Demographic Dividend and the Future of Asia ... 91
Patcharawalai WONGBOONSIN and Kua WONGBOONSIN

4 Shrinking of the Japanese Uniqueness: A Quantitative Analysis of Life Course Changes ... 116
IWAI Hachiro

5 Factors in the Wage Diffferential between Standard and Nonstandard Employment: A comparison of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan ... 144
TAROHMARU Hiroshi

6 Care Diamonds and Welfare Regimes in East and Southeast Asian Societies ... 164
OCHIAI Emiko

7 Incorporating Foreign Domestic Workers as Providers of Family Care: Case Studies of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore ... 190
ASATO Wako

8 Social Investment Policy in South Korea ... 234
ITO Peng

9 A Comparative Perspective on Japanese Family Law ... 254
MIZUNO Noriko

10 The Development of Civil Society in East Asia: Focusing on the Environment, Human Rights and Migrant Labor ... 266
IGARASHI Seiichi

Index ... 303
All students and researchers interested in the social sciences and modern Asian societies.
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