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E-mail: b.switek@ucl.ac.uk
Year of start: 2007
Subject: Social Anthropology

Research topic:

Reluctant Intimacies. Japanese Eldercare in Indonesian Hands

Supervisor(s):

Ruth Mandel and Allen Abramson

Introduction:

My thesis looks at the formation of relationships between the Japanese personnel, the employers, the cared-for elderly, and the Indonesian care workers employed in the Japanese eldercare institutions under the Economic Partnership Agreement between Japan and Indonesia initially implemented in 2008. While primarily focusing on the negotiation of relationships at an interpersonal level, the thesis also considers the intersections between the ageing of society, the Japanese discourses of nationhood, and international political-economic relations. Shifting between these scales of observation, the project discusses the interplay between the bodily, interpersonal, and cultural intimacies. It examines how they are formed, maintained, negated, negotiated, and lost. In doing so, the thesis shifts the emphasis away from (but does not completely abandon) the ethnic or national underpinnings of the migration processes as a lived experience for migrants and hosts alike. Instead, it shows how direct corporeal experiences have the real potential to override and shape broader social representations and values.

Research interests:

• anthropology of migration
• work place ethnography
• institutions and social values
• intuitive ontology
• intimacy, trust, and morality
• the body, sociality, and social values
• anthropology of adventure sports
• human-landscape interactions
• applied anthropology

Academic background:

2007, MSc in Social Anthropolgy, University College London, UK

2006, Diploma in Journalism, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland

2003, MA in Japanese Studies, Jagiellonian University, Poland and Shizuoka University, Japan

Conferences and workshops:

• Can anthropology work for migrants? Anthropology(ists) at work in charities and NGOs, panel convened for The Royal Anthropological Institute: Anthropology in the World Conference. London, UK, 8–10. 06. 2012
• Hospitality and amae, paper presented at the 8th European Association for Japanese Studies PhD Workshop. Newcastle, UK, 30. 05 – 02. 06. 2012
• Comparative socialities of migrants and people with disabilities, paper presented at the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth Conference: Vital Human Interactions with Living Things. Lampeter, UK, 13–16. 09. 2011
• Migrant care labour and policy responses in ageing Japan: debating a new society, paper contributed to the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS): Making Connections Conference: Migration, Gender and Care Labour in Transnational Context. Oxford, UK, 14–15. 04. 2011
• The Socio-Political Identity of Indonesian Immigrants in Japan, paper presented at the 24th Association of South-East Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (ASEASUK) Conference. Liverpool, UK, 20–22. 06. 2008

Funding:

The Japan Foundation Fellowship - field research, PhD in Social Anthropology, Japan, 2008–2010
The Frederick Bonnart-Braunthal Scholarship - PhD in Social Anthropology, UK, 2007–2010
Marie Curie Fellowship - Early Stage Scholars Fellowship at University of Bradford, UK, 03.2005–11.2005
The Japanese Ministry of Education Scholarship - MA in Japanese Studies, Japan, 2001–2002