Copyright by Chiho Sunakawa Inoue 2012
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Copyright by Chiho Sunakawa Inoue 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Chiho Sunakawa Inoue Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Virtual “Ie” Household: Transnational Family Interactions in Japan and the United States Committee: Elizabeth Keating, Supervisor William F. Hanks Angela M. Nonaka Enrique R. Rodríguez-Alegría Jürgen Streeck John W. Traphagan Virtual “Ie” Household: Transnational Family Interactions in Japan and the United States by Chiho Sunakawa Inoue, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2012 Dedication To my family Acknowledgements This dissertation could not have been made possible without the help and support of many people. First of all, I thank all the families who participated in my study. They allowed me to take part in their lives, willingly accommodated my requests, and shared perspectives on managing family interactions. This dissertation reflects their generosity, trust, and friendship in many ways. Financial support to conduct fieldwork was generously provided by the Bono Lab at the National Institute of Informatics Japan (NII) and the Mitsubishi Graduate Research Fellowship. Center for East Asian Studies, the Science, Technology, and Society program (STS), and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission (Fulbright Japan) made my graduate career possible, for which I am grateful. I also thank members of my committee for guiding me throughout my research and education. I thank William F. Hanks, whose classes at UT inspired my analytical approach to interactions as social practices. I also thank Jürgen Streeck who taught me a number of different ways to examine the role of bodily movements in social interactions. I appreciate his generosity in allowing me to participate in his data sessions where I learned various ways to collect and analyze naturally occurring interactions. I am thankful to John W. Traphagan for his support. His insightful observations about Japanese cultural phenomena opened my eyes to new ways to understand Japanese practices of constructing a family. I am thankful to Enrique R. Rodríguez-Alegría for kindly allowing me to sit in on his class about archaeologies of technology where I learned how the idea of technology is a social conduct. I am appreciative of Angela M. v Nonaka for her friendship and the generous hours that she spent with me talking about theoretical concerns in linguistic anthropology. Most importantly, I am immensely indebted to my mentor Elizabeth Keating, who made all the difference in my life as a graduate student. I learned greatly from her keen observations on a wide range of interaction data. Participating in her research projects, I learned how to organize and cultivate a research project, and how to write a publishable paper. Countless comments I received from her on many, many drafts of my work including this dissertation were full of insights and thought-provoking questions that took me in the right direction. The completion of this dissertation could not have been possible without her support and confidence in me. Her generosity, intelligence, and eloquence will continue to inspire me in building my academic career. I also thank Joel Sherzer and Keith Walters, whose classes taught me a wide range of approaches and theories in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology and helped shape the approach I take in this dissertation. Many professors and colleagues in Japan also had a profound influence in my work. Sachiko Ide of Japan Women’s University, who was my advisor in my student years in Japan, introduced me to the world of studying language and culture. I appreciate her constant encouragement and long-term support. Masako Hiraga and Yoko Fujii helped me with my master’s research and scholarship proposals. Mayumi Bono has been a good friend and colleague since I met her in Austin. Her positive energy and countless comments on my analyses are always inspirational. I also thank members of her lab at the National Institute of Informatics, Japan (NII), including Kohei Kikuchi, Yauhiro Moriuchi, Takeshi Sunada, Satoko Tsushima, Yumiko Takeuchi, and Kiyomi Crozer. I am grateful to participate in meetings of the miburi-ken (‘gesture study group’) by Skype. When I had an opportunity to present my analyses, Masashi Inoue, Kuniyoshi Kataoka, Hiromichi Hosoma, and Nobuhiro vi Furuyama provided me with many helpful comments. I also thank participants in reading groups I organized at NII including Kazuki Sekine, Hiroyasu Massaki, Tomoko Endo, Ayami Joh, Takeshi Hiramoto, and Katsuya Takanashi. I thank as well my friends. My Austin sisters, Elaine Chun and Wai Fong Chiang, helped me through the most difficult times. Inger Mey and Jacob Mey supported me in many ways, particularly in the last phase of dissertation writing. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Scott Webel who proofread my chapters. I will never forget the time I spent with Sae Oshima, Eiko Yasui, Tomoko Pujara Sakuma, Jiwon Han, Maria Luz Garcia, Anindita Chatterjee, Gwen Kirk, and Marko Monteiro. Finally, I thank my family for their consistent love and support. My father Yujiro Sunakawa and my mother Keiko Sunakawa have always believed in me and waited with much patience. Last, but not least, I thank my husband Takao Inoue. Without his unconditional support and wholehearted encouragement, I could not have completed this dissertation. vii Virtual “Ie” Household: Transnational Family Interactions in Japan and the United States Publication No._____________ Chiho Sunakawa Inoue, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Elizabeth Keating This dissertation explores the impact of technology on social life. Focusing on webcam-mediated audio-visual conversations between Japanese families in the United States and their extended family members in Japan, I examine how technology participates in creating an interactional space for the families to manage intra- and intergenerational relationships. Combining ethnography with turn-by-turn analyses of naturally occurring webcam interactions, I specifically investigate how cultural, discursive, and family practices are transformed in innovative ways and how families adapt to the emerging mediated space. Looking at how interactional activities are coordinated across spaces, I show that webcam interactions constitute a new type of shared living space in which multigenerational family relationships are created and managed. I call this emerging space the virtual ie (‘house’ and ‘stem-family system’). In this virtually conjoined space, children, parents, and grandparents are visually familiarized with each other’s households and socialized to each other’s virtual presence. Even though the ie is no longer a juridical viii unit of co-residence, my goal is to discuss the significance of the ie in understanding how transnational Japanese families can dwell in a shared living space created by webcam interactions. My analyses demonstrate how webcam encounters create a stage for participants to perform various identities in interactions. Learning to talk and participate in such webcam interactions, children are socialized to their ie belongings and identities. Additionally, even though far-flung children do not provide physical and daily care for their parents in Japan, they actively take care of elder parents’ media environments. I demonstrate that what I call media care practices add another context for adult children living abroad to carry out their filial responsibilities. I also show that the management of webcam visual fields creates a type of social field that reflects local understandings of social positioning in ie structures. How participants decide to display themselves to others by manipulating the webcam’s visual fields provides a new way to demonstrate various social relationships and responsibilities over long distances. From this perspective, a virtual ie is not merely a reflection of an ideological understanding of Japanese families, but an interactional achievement facilitated by webcams. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiii List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xiv List of Examples ....................................................................................................xv Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1 1.1 Theoretical approach .................................................................................3 1.2 Theoretical background ............................................................................5 1.2.1 Studies of digital communication technologies ............................7 1.2.2 The webcam as a new form of embodied interaction ...................8 1.2.3 Language, the body, and the material world ...............................11 1.2.4 Technology and work .................................................................13 1.2.5 Social meanings of space ............................................................15 1.2.6 Language and socialization .........................................................17 1.3 Uniqueness of the research site: